Axis vs ICICI Bank: Both have similar risk profile in asset quality terms

Both stocks are closely tracked and there's constant interest to find which will be the winner in the race to end the bad loan spell

With the benchmark indices scaling new heights every other day, the two competing private banks, Axis and ICICI, are among the major gainers. Their shares have, in fact, outperformed the indices by a big margin in the past month, with Axis up 17 per cent and ICICI up 23 per cent in the period.  

The debate among investors, especially after the June quarter (Q1) results, is about which of the two stocks is a better 'buy'. This is because Axis outperformed ICICI in the past six-month and 12-month periods but the latter seems to be catching up. A majority