Commonwealth Bank is on track to make a record $8.7 billion annual profit, sending its shares to their highest level ever.
Australia's largest home lender's cash profit grew by 16 per cent to $2.2 billion in the three months to the end of March, as revenue continued to rise and costs were tightly managed.
A similar performance in the final quarter of the financial year will take CBA's annual cash profit to nearly $8.7 billion, a record for any local bank.
Its shares soared past $80, an all-time high, on the continued profit growth.
At the close of trade CBA shares were worth $80.89, up 1.2 per cent since the previous close.
Investors were impressed with the details of the bank's quarterly performance, but strong profit growth was the main reason for the buying, CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said.
"While some of it does come down to a better performance on bad and doubtful debts and provisioning, the underlying operating result was also very strong," he said.
"It's all about the numbers for CBA today."
He said CBA's share price could continue "to the moon", despite concerns shares in the big four banks were overpriced after a strong run so far in 2014.
Investors are still attracted by the healthy dividends the banks are all paying out, Mr McCarthy said.
CBA said there was moderate mortgage growth in the three months to March due to lower interest rates, but those rates also resulted in borrowers paying back more.
Business lending remained subdued, while household deposits continued to grow.
The quality of CBA's loan book was stable, it said, with impaired assets unchanged at $3.9 billion.
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