The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's biggest commercial lender, said Thursday its net profits for the first quarter of 2011 rose 29.03 percent year-on-year to 53.84 billion yuan ($8.08 billion).

Earnings per share stood at 0.15 yuan, the Beijing-based lender said in its first quarter report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The bank said its returns on total assets reached 1.55 percent by the end of March, up 0.18 percentage points from a year ago.

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In the first quarter, the bank's domestic branches extended 210.516 billion yuan in new loans, up 3.39 percent from a year earlier, but loans for real estate development dropped 10.3 percent year-on-year, it said.

By the end of March, the bank's outstanding deposits hit 11.76 trillion yuan, an increase of 618.867 billion yuan from three months ago. In the same three-month period, net income from interest rose 24.82 percent to 85.38 billion yuan.

The bank's non-performing loan ratio decreased 0.08 percentage points to 1 percent, but its core capital adequacy ratio was down 0.31 percentage points to 9.66 percent.

Shares of the bank on the Shanghai Stock Exchange went up 1.1 percent to close at 4.59 yuan Thursday, while its share price on the Hong Kong bourse dipped 1.05 percent to HK$6.58 (85 cents).