Since tough interests could not initiate a lending surge under Beijing's 4 trillion yuan economic stimulus package, a forecast-beating 10 percent rise in second-quarter profit was posted by Bank of China, the country's biggest foreign exchange lender Thursday.

For the period of April to June, a 22.55 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) net profit was recorded by the Beijing-based lender, as compared with 20.5 billion yuan for the year-ago period.

A profit of 41.12 billion yuan was made by the Bank of China for the first six months of the year - marking a drop of 2.5 percent from 42.2 billion in the year-ago period.

A net profit of 38.7 billion yuan, on average, for the first half, and a profit of 20.13 billion yuan for the second quarter, was being expected by six analysts polled by Reuters.

"Hong Kong-listed shares of Bank of China, in which Royal Bank of Scotland has a 2.69 percent stake, have soared almost 80 percent this year compared with a 40 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI. Its domestic A-shares are up about 33 percent over the same period. ($=6.83 yuan)," said a source.