Axis Bank Q4 profit dips 1% to Rs 2,154 cr

Private lender Axis Bank on Tuesday reported a marginal 1 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 2,154.28 crore for January-March due to higher provisioning for bad loans. The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 2,180.59 crore in the January-March quarter of 2014-15. Total income of the bank in the quarter ended March 31, 2016, was at Rs 13,592.97 crore, up from Rs 12,384.39 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal, the bank said in a BSE filing. 

On provisioning front, Axis Bank kept aside a sum of Rs 1,168.33 crore for bad loans and contingencies for the quarter, sharply up from Rs 709.82 crore a year ago.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans were 1.67 per cent of the gross advances as of March 2016, a tad higher than 1.34 per cent a year earlier. Net NPAs were 0.70 per cent of the net advances during the quarter, as against 0.44 per cent. The Net Interest Income (NII) grew 20 per cent to Rs 4,553 crore during the last quarter of 2015-16, as against Rs 3,799 crore a year ago, it said in a release. 

Also, net interest margin for the quarter remained healthy and stood at 3.97 per cent. For the entire fiscal 2015-16, Axis Bank's net profit rose by 12 per cent to Rs 8,224 crore as against Rs 7,358 crore.