Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom's largest bank, reported a 16.6 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday, beating analysts' forecasts.

The lender made a net profit of SR2.13 billion in the three months to December 31, up from SR1.83 billion in the same period of 2014, it said in a bourse statement.

Three analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast NCB would make a quarterly profit of SR1.95 billion. - reuters