Axis Bank posts smaller-than-expected fall in Q1 net profit

(Reuters) - Axis Bank, India's third-biggest private sector lender by assets, reported a smaller-than-expected fall in first-quarter net profit as its bad loan additions slowed.

Net profit was down 16 percent at 13.06 billion rupees ($202.88 million) for the three months ended June 30, Axis Bank said on Tuesday. (http://bit.ly/2uwoVjy)

Analysts on an average had expected the Mumbai-based bank to report a net profit of 12.82 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Gross bad loan ratio as a percentage of total loans came in at 5.03 percent at end-June, compared with 5.04 percent at March-end and 2.54 percent at end of June 2016.

 

($1 = 64.3725 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan)