Axis Bank first-quarter profit falls 46 percent

(Reuters) - Axis Bank Ltd, India's third-biggest private sector lender by assets, on Monday reported a 46 percent fall in first-quarter profit as its bad loans continued to rise.

The bank's net profit for the period ended June 30 fell to 7.01 billion rupees ($102.14 million) from 13.06 billion rupees a year ago, it said.

Analysts had expected a net profit of 5.56 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Gross non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans fell to 6.52 percent at end-June, compared with 6.77 percent three months earlier, but rose year-on-year from 5.03 percent in the first quarter of 2017.

($1 = 68.6300 Indian rupees)

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan)