UPDATE 1-Komercni 9-mth net profit beats fcast, shares up

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Komercni Banka , the only listed Czech bank, reported a bigger-than-expected 19 percent rise in nine-month net profit on Thursday, helping its shares gain in the face of global equity market falls.

Earnings attributable to the bank's equity holders reached 8.124 billion crowns ($441.5 million), beating the average forecast of 7.74 billion crowns in a Reuters poll of six analysts.

Komercni, 60.35 percent-owned by France's Societe Generale , said the profit growth came thanks to its October 2006 takeover of building society Modra Pyramida, and rising interest income and profitability of financial operations.

Net interest income rose 15.5 percent year-on-year to 13.703 billion crowns, surpassing the 13.45 billion average forecast, while January-September revenue was up 13 percent to 21.783 billion crowns, also ahead of the 21.65 billion estimate.

Shares in Komercni rose 1.3 percent to 4,195 crowns by 0920 GMT, outperforming a 0.9 percent drop in the Prague stock exchange's blue-chip PX index . (Reporting by Marek Petrus; Editing by Erica Billingham, Paul Bolding) ($1=18.40 Czech Crown)

Keywords: KOMERCNI RESULTS/

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]