Bengaluru: Axis Bank Ltd, India's third biggest private-sector lender, on Tuesday reported a surprise ₹1,388 crore loss for the fourth quarter, as it set aside funds to cover potential loan losses due to the coronavirus-driven downturn.
The Mumbai-based Axis booked provisions of ₹7,730 crore for the quarter, or nearly three times higher than last year, including ₹3,000 crore towards COVID-19, the lender said in a regulatory filing.
Analysts had expected a profit of ₹1,556 crore for the three months to March 31, according to Refinitiv data, compared to a reported profit of ₹1,505 crore a year earlier.
However, gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans, a measure of asset quality, eased to 4.86% at March-end from 5% in the previous