China's Bank of Communications Co Ltd (BoCom), reported a 1.44% rise in first-quarter net profit.

BoCom reported a net profit of 24.99 billion yuan ($3.45 billion) in the three months ended March, up from 24.63 billion yuan in the same period last year, the bank said in a filing on Friday. ($1 = 7.2463 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen Tham; editing by Christina Fincher)