Strong Q4 earnings push Axis Bank 3% higher

Axis Bank, the third largest private sector lender, gained three percent after reporting a forecast beating 22 percent year-on-year rise in its fourth quarter net profit at Rs 1,555 crore.

On an average, analysts had expected Q4 net profit to grow 12 percent at Rs 1,431 crore.

Meanwhile, net interest income rose by 24 percent YoY to Rs 2,665 crore in January-March quarter.

"Healthy growth in NII and other income has contributed to the net profit rise," Somnath Sengupta, Executive Director – Axis Bank told reporters in a conference call.

"Our loan growth has been higher than the industry. Our net interest margin would be in the range of 3.25 – 3.50 percent in FY14. Probably, it could better than this. In FY14, we expect the share of retail to be at around 30 percent of our loan book as against 27 percent currently," Sengupta said.

For the full year 2012-13, Axis Bank's net profit rose 22 percent YoY to about Rs 5,200 crore. NII increased 21 percent to Rs 9,700 crore. 

However, brokerage house Morgan Stanley is underweight on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,075.

At 10:58 hours IST, the stock was quoting at Rs 1,485, up 2.85 percent over previous day's close price.