Axis Bank Q1 profit jumps 22 pc; corporate loans grow, NIMs compress

Mumbai, Jul 18 (PTI) Axis Bank on Saturday reported a 22.23 per cent jump in consolidated profit for the June quarter at Rs 7,632.31 crore, helped by a narrowing in provisions.

On a standalone basis, the third largest private sector lender’s net profit jumped 23 per cent to Rs 7,114 crore.

Its core net interest income grew 8 per cent to Rs 14,646 crore on the back of a 19 per cent jump in advances and a narrowing in the net interest margin to 3.46 per cent from the 3.80 per cent in the year-ago period and quarter-ago period’s 3.73 per cent.

A 38 per cent growth in corporate loans led the advances growth, while retail loans grew 8 per cent during the April-June period, the bank said.

Its Chief Executive and Managing Director Amitabh Chaudhry said

the NIM is at the bottom in the current cycle, hinting that it will rise from here on but refrained from giving any aspirational number for the near future.

He said the FCNR(B) scheme, under which the banks are expected to get deposits from the diaspora will also influence the NIM number going forward as it will bring additional liquidity that was not budgeted for, and can help from a paydown of high-cost liabilities.

The overall non-interest income comprising fee, trading and miscellaneous incomes came at Rs 6,735 crore, which was down 7 per cent from the year-ago period’s Rs 7,258 crore on majorly on the back of a 62 per cent drop in the trading income.

From an asset quality perspective, the gross slippages declined to Rs 5,566 crore in the reporting quarter from the Rs 8,200 crore in the year-ago period, but were higher than the Rs 4,675 crore in the quarter-go period.

Outgoing Chief Financial Officer Puneet Sharma explained that this is a seasonal feature and asked for a one-year comparison.

The overall provisions declined to Rs 2,223 crore during the quarter from Rs 3,948 crore in April-June 2026, helping the bank report healthy profit at a time when the income growth was tepid.

The gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio inched up to 1.28 per cent on-quarter as compared with March-end’s 1.23 per cent.

The corporate loan growth came from a variety of sectors, including energy, commercial realty, public sector NBFCs, and the mid-corporate segments, the bank said.

Going ahead, the bank is maintaining its aim of growing the loan book 3 percentage points higher than the banking system growth, Sharma said, reminding that the aspiration was done when the house economists were penciling a 12 per cent credit growth for system.

Sharma said the bank has launched its FCNR(B) offering in the market, but refrained from giving any target for the bank or even divulging the quantum of leverage that the bank is willing to give.

He maintained that the bank is aiming for a market share in FCNR(B) inflows that will be higher than its organic market share.

On the impact of the West Asia crisis on its loan book, Sharma said it has not drawn from the Rs 2,001 crore provision it made at the end of the March quarter in the early days of the war.

It has sanctioned over Rs 5,000 crore of loans to be given as benefit under the government-launched Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme 5.0 to protect businesses hit by the US-Israel war on Iran and its fallout. Of this, over Rs 2,400 crore of loans have been disbursed, Axis Bank said.

Overall, the capital adequacy of the lender stood at 16.67 per cent as of June 30, 2026. PTI AA TRB