ATHENS, July 29 (Reuters) - Eurobank and National Bank, Greece's two largest lenders by market value were profitable in the first half as they rid their balance sheets of yet more impaired loans.

Eurobank reported net earnings of 941 million euros ($957.28 million) from 190 million in the first half of 2021. Profit was boosted by a gain from the sale of a majority stake in its merchant acquiring business to Cardlink.

"Major economies may enter into recession, with heightened asset quality risks for the European banking sector. Greece shows a better outlook, growth is seen at 4% on the back of a record-breaking tourism season," said CEO Fokion Karavias.

The bank's strong set of results led management to revise this year's goals higher, including return-on-equity which should top a 10% initial target, he said.

Eurobank's net fee and commission income rose 22.4% year-on-year to 256 million euros, with net interest income improving 4.5% to 700 million. Its ratio of so-called non-performing exposures fell to 5.9%.

Peer National Bank (NBG) reported lower net earnings compared to last year's first half on the back of softer trading income.

NBG, 40% owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported net earnings from continued operations of 490 million euros ($499.85 million) from 645 million euros in the first half of 2021.

The group's NPE ratio improved to 6.3% from 6.7% at the end of March with CEO Paul Mylonas saying the quality of its balance sheet was nearing that of European peers, with no signs of pick up in new bad loan formation due to high inflation.

On Friday NBG said it agreed to sell 95% of mezzanine and junior notes of a securitised 1.0 billion euro bad loan portfolio to funds managed by Bracebridge Capital. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos, Editing by Louise Heavens)