Commonwealth Bank of Australia's logs record annual profit

Aug 12 (Reuters) - ‌Commonwealth Bank ​of ​Australia reported record full-year cash earnings on Wednesday, driven by ‌robust home and business lending volumes ⁠and resilient credit quality.

The bank's home lending ‌volumes rose 5.8% ‌and business lending gained 9.6% from a year earlier, despite intense competition.

The ​country's biggest lender by market capitalisation and mortgage portfolio posted cash ⁠earnings of A$10.98 billion ($7.75 billion) for the year ended ​June 30, compared with A$10.25 billion reported last year.

That beat a ​Visible Alpha consensus ‌estimate of A$10.85 billion.

However, CBA flagged signs of cooling housing ⁠loan demand, saying home loan application volumes had fallen 15% since May, including ⁠a 28% drop in investor applications.

The bank's ​annual net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, fell 3 basis points from last ‌year to 2.05%.

It declared a final dividend of A$2.70 per ‌share, compared with A$2.60 a ⁠piece it paid ‌last year.

($1 = 1.4166 ​Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini ‌Ganguli)

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