Customers fill out forms at a branch of China Merchants Bank in Haikou, Hainan province. [Photo by Zhang Mao/China Daily]

BEIJING - China Merchants Bank, a mid-sized Chinese lender, posted better net profit growth in the first half of the year with a higher net interest income.

The bank's net profit attributable to shareholders reached 39.3 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) in the first six months of the year, up 11.4 percent year-on-year, it said in a statement.

This was higher than the 6.8 percent rise in the same period of last year.

Net interest income rose 5.1 percent year-on-year to 70.9 billion yuan in H1, the bank said.

Total assets climbed 4.3 percent from six months earlier to 6.1 trillion yuan by the end of June, while its bad loan ratio fell 0.16 percentage point to 1.71 percent.

The bank's shares rose 1.44 percent in Shanghai on Friday but dropped 0.19 percent in Hong Kong.