Axis Bank posts surprise quarterly loss on tax charge
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India's Axis Bank Ltd reported a surprise loss for the second quarter on Tuesday, hurt by a one-off tax expense of 21.38 billion rupees.
Net loss came in at 1.12 billion rupeesfor the three months to September30, compared with a profit of 7.90 billion rupees last year, the Mumbai-based private-sector lender said in a filing to the exchanges.
Nineteen analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 11.51 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.
Adjusted for the tax charge, Axis Bank would have reported a profit of 20.26 billion rupees for the quarter, up 157 per centfrom a year ago, the bank said.
Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans, a measure of asset quality, eased to 5.03 per centby the end of September, compared with 5.25 per centin the previous quarter, and 5.96 per centduring the same period last year.