Commonwealth Bank can do no wrong by the sharemarket and put more distance between its ballooning valuation and blue-chip stablemates such as CSL and BHP with its latest profit update.

CBA’s share price defied the assurances of stockbrokers that Australia’s largest lender is wildly overvalued and claimed a fresh record high on Thursday at $167.610 apiece. The market was heartened by record home lending, ultra-low bad debts and a $2.25 a share fully franked interim dividend declared in its half-year results on Wednesday. As for profit growth? That was 2 per cent year-on-year, to $5.1 billion.

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