Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd.(ICBC),China's biggest bank by market value,said Thursday its first-quarter net profit expects up to more than 50% from the same year earlier.

In the statement on its home website,the Hong Kong and Shanghai list company attributed the profit growth to higher net interest income, strong fee- based businesses and a reduction in China's corporate income tax rate.

ICBC reported the net profit of first quarter in 2007 is 18.71 billion yuan,as the earning of 0.06 yuan per share.

In Hong Kong Stock Market,ICBC(HK1398) closed up 0.3 percent to 5.98 HK dollars,comparing up 2.83 percent to 6.18 yuan in Shanghai Stock Market.

China