Axis Bank falls over 2%; mcap declines by Rs 2,681 crore

New Delhi: Axis Bank shares ended over 2 percent lower on Thursday, wiping out Rs 2,681 crore from its market valuation, after the company reported a 43 percent decline in net profit for the March quarter.

The stock opened on a positive note but surrendered all its gains to end at Rs 505.95, down 2.19 percent on BSE. During the day, it slipped 2.64 percent to Rs 503.60.

At NSE, shares of the company dipped 2 percent to close at Rs 506.60.

The company's market valuation too fell by Rs 2,680.92 crore to Rs 1,21,214.08 crore.

On the volume front, 21.35 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over two crore shares changed hands at NSE during the day.

Axis Bank yesterday reported a 43 percent decline in net profit to Rs 1,225.10 crore for the fourth quarter of last fiscal ended March 31 on higher provisioning for bad loans, which rose sharply.

The country's third largest private sector lender had posted a net profit of Rs 2,154.28 crore for the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal, 2015-16.

However, its total income increased to Rs 14,181.31 crore in the fourth quarter of 2016-17 as against Rs 13,592.97 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans rose significantly to 5.04 percent of the gross advances as of March this year, as against 1.67 percent a year earlier.

Net NPAs were 2.11 percent of the net advances during the quarter, as against 0.70 percent earlier.

Consequently, provisioning for bad loans and contingencies more than doubled to Rs 2,581.25 crore from Rs 1,168.33 crore in the same quarter a year ago.