BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- China Construction Bank (CCB), the country's second-largest lender, said net profit was 32.12 billion yuan (4.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter on greater net interest earnings and fee incomes.

    Net earnings per share was 0.14 yuan per share, based on domestic accounting standards, the bank said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange late Friday. It did not provide year-earlier figures.

    Net income of the nation's largest mortgage lender was 69.05 billion yuan in 2007, up 49.1 percent from an year earlier.

    Chinese banks have recorded rapid increase in profits on wider interest rate margin, strong loans growth, and greater fees income from the sales of bank cards and wealth management products.

    Net interest earnings was 54.4 billion yuan and fee incomes was10.7 billion yuan in the first three months ended on March 31.

    Net rate margin expanded to 3.12 percent, as the central bank raised the lending rate by a larger margin, after six interest rate hikes last year.

    Total assets rose to 6.88 trillion yuan, up 4.2 percent from the end of last year.

    Outstanding loans climbed 5.07 percent, or 161.4 billion yuan, to 3.34 trillion yuan and total deposits added 5.59 percent, or 298.3 billion yuan, to 5.64 trillion yuan.

    Capital adequacy ratio was 12.38 percent, 0.2 percentage points lower than three months ago. Non-performing loans ratio dropped by0.38 percentage points to 2.22 percent.

    The bank went public in Shanghai on Sept. 25 last year, raising57.1 billion yuan in its mainland initial public offering.

    It slumped 2.61 percent to 7.83 yuan in Shanghai on Friday, before the earnings announcement.