Axis Bank Q3 profit rises 25 percent, but lags estimate

REUTERS - Axis Bank Ltd posted a 25 percent rise in quarterly net profit, helped by higher interest and fee incomes as well as a drop in provisions for bad loans, although results fell slightly short of a consensus estimate.

Net profit rose to 7.26 billion rupees ($113.86 million) for the quarter ended December, from 5.80 billion rupees a year ago, the country's third-largest private sector lender by assets said on Monday. http://bit.ly/2DqYf7L

That was below the average estimate of 7.98 billion rupees from 21 analysts, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 5.28 percent at end-December, compared with 5.90 percent in the previous quarter and 5.22 percent a year earlier.

 

($1 = 63.7625 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar)