Loans to MSMEs, India lockdown to make Axis Bank's bad loans worse

SME slippages so far in FY20 are just little shy of FY19's Rs 11,200 crore, and may increase due to lock-outs imposed

Even when Axis Bank posted a few quarters of losses in the past years, its stock price didn’t come crashing as it did on Monday.

As early as March, there was optimism that things would turn around. But, as the country embraces lockdown to fight COVID-19, it sent the Axis Bank stock down to levels last seen in 2014. Monday’s 28 per cent price fall is the sharpest ever seen by the stock; it is also the biggest among S&P BSE Bankex components.

With 11 per cent of its loan book exposed to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a lockdown