DUBAI, July 10 (Reuters) - Qatar National Bank , the oil-rich Gulf's biggest lender by assets, reported on Monday a 4% drop in second-quarter net profit to 3.7 billion riyals ($1.02 billion).

QNB missed analysts' mean estimate of 3.9 billion riyals net profit in the quarter, Refinitiv data showed.

The lender did not give a reason for the fall in Q2 profit, but said it has so far this year set aside 4.7 billion riyals "as provision for potential loan losses and NPL coverage ratio remained strong at 99%, reflecting a prudent approach adopted by the Group towards non-performing loans," it said.

Net profit for the first half of the year was 7.6 billion riyals, up 8% from the first half of 2022.

Total assets at the end of June were up 7% from a year earlier to just over 1.2 trillion riyals. Loans and advances also rose 7% to 819 billion riyals.

($1 = 3.6440 Qatar riyals) (Reporting by Yousef Saba, Editing by Louise Heavens)