SINGAPORE: DBS Group reported a 37% rise in quarterly profit, supported by an improvement in asset quality at Southeast Asia's largest bank but the result was shy of market estimates.

       "We look forward to the coming year with a prudently managed balance sheet that is poised to benefit from rising interest rates," DBS Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said in a statement on Monday.

       DBS, the first Singapore bank to report this season, said net profit for October-December rose to S$1.389 billion ($1.03 billion).

       That compares with an average estimate of S$1.47 billion from four analysts polled by Refinitiv and follows a particularly weak pandemic-hit year when profit tumbled to a three-year low. ($1 = 1.3464 Singapore dollars)- Reuters