Axis Bank net profit rises 83% in Q2

Axis Bank’s net profit in the quarter ended September rose by 83% to Rs 790 crore from Rs 432 crore in the year-ago period.

A Bloomberg poll of analysts had estimated the net profit at Rs 759 crore.

The bank’s net interest income too recorded a steady growth over the previous year, rising 15% year on year to touch Rs 5,323 crore in Q2.

Net interest margin for the quarter stood at 3.36%, an improvement from 3.29% in the first quarter of FY19.

On the asset quality front too, Axis Bank’s performance improved with gross NPA ratio narrowing to 5.96% from 6.52% in the last quarter. Net NPA ratio too dropped to 2.54% from 3.09% in Q1.

The bank’s fresh NPAs or slippages took a sharp drop, falling 69% year on year to Rs 2,777 crore from Rs 8,936 crore last year.

Axis Bank’s provisioning too fell from Rs 3,140 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year to Rs 2,927 crore for the September quarter this year; sequentially too, the figure dropped 12% from Rs 3,337 crore last quarter.

The bank’s outgoing CEO Shikha Sharma said going forward, the bank should continue to see its NPA numbers fall significantly.

Amitabh Chaudhry, Sharma’s successor, is set to join the bank in an executive role on November 19 to aid the transition at the top management level. He will take over as CEO of Axis Bank on January 1, 2019.

Axis Bank’s stock closed at Rs 609.95 per share on the BSE on Friday, up 1.26% from the previous day’s close. The benchmark Sensex rose 1.68% from the previous day to close at 35,011.65 points.