Axis Bank Q4 net up 18 percent, bad loans stable

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Axis Bank Ltd , India's third-biggest private sector lender by assets, reported on Wednesday a better-than-expected 18.4 percent increase in quarterly net profit, ahead of analysts' estimates.

The Mumbai-based bank said net profit rose to 21.81 billion rupees ($344.6 million) in its fiscal fourth quarter to March 31, from 18.42 billion rupees a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had expected the bank to report a net profit of 21.4 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans were little changed from the third quarter at 1.34 percent.

Axis Bank said it would seek shareholders' approval to raise the foreign investment limit in it to 74 percent from 62 percent currently after the bank board approved the plan.

The board also approved a plan to issue up to 142 million depositary receipts, which the lender said would facilitate a share issue outside India.

($1 = 63.2900 rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)