MUMBAI (Reuters) – State Bank of India, the country’s top lender, expects loan growth and margins to revive as corporate confidence in Asia’s third largest economy boost credit demand.

On Saturday, the state-run lender posted a 10.2 percent rise in September quarter net profit to 24.9 billion rupees ($530.2 million) on trading gains as core operations suffered on slipping loan demand and low lending rates.

A Reuters survey of analysts had forecast net profit at 24.6 billion rupees.

On Friday, closest rival ICICI Bank said quarterly net profit rose 2.6 percent, beating forecast.

Rising business confidence in Asia’s third-largest economy is expected to bring back corporate, housing, auto and retail demand helping Indian banks boost sagging loan growth.

“Loan growth was slow until June. After that it has picked up significantly and if the rate of growth continues we should be able to meet our targets,” Chairman O.P. Bhatt told reporters.

Advances grew 16.4 percent in July-September, lagging its 30 percent surge over the past few years but ahead of the 13 percent sector growth, said State Bank, which along with its associates controls almost a quarter of Indian bank loans and deposits.

But it expected to reach credit growth of 22 percent in the year to March 2010, Bhatt said.

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 16 (PTI) The State Bank of India has withdrawn a 30-year-old norm placing certain restrictions on immediate posting to pregnant women after their recruitment. SBI sources here said a recent circular from the bank”s headquarters stated that pregnancy need not be considered as a bar for giving immediate postings to women candidates, who had passed the written tests and interviews.

It said the norms were formulated long back on the premise that pregnancy normally results in indifferent health and is a hindrance in discharge of one”s duties. In view of the advancement in medical sciences and changed lifestyles, the medical community felt that women are able to take up work even during pregnancy.

So women candidates should be permitted to join the bank in their first two trimesters (upto first six months of pregnancy), the revised rules said. Women and youth outfits in Kerala, especially pro-left forums, had recently organised protests against the earlier norm, dubbing it as “grossly discriminatory against women”.

Kerala Chief Minister V S Acuhthanandan had also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking his intervention for withdrawal of the “discriminatory norm.” The State Bank Staff Union welcomed the decision.

“It has always been our position that it went against gender justice and it is good that the management has withdrawn it at last,” K Raja Kurup, SBSU general secretary, Kerala circle, told PTI. PTI NM APR KJV apr.