Prefer Axis Bank, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank: Ajay Bodke

Ajay Bodke of Prabhudas Lilladher told CNBC-TV18, "There has been too much of pessimism that some of the corporate focused banks sort have been encountering. Axis Bank through its results has clearly shown that instead of waiting for two quarters and letting there be an overhang on the asset quality for the 150 accounts that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had flagged off, the management most proactively went ahead and cleaned up. The provisions necessitated by RBI‘s identification of those accounts in one go and a Rs 1,000 crore write-off out of Rs 2,000 crore slippages is entirely attributed to that.""I think the management also has guided that the net interest margins (NIMs) will remain more or less steady at around 3.5 percent in the medium-term. The retail book has grown very strongly at around 27 percent, the corporate book continues to chug along steadily at around 21 percent and with a strong 18 percent plus return on equity (RoE) and 1.7 to 1.8 percent return on asset (RoA) which the management is confident of maintaining or improving as the cycle improves, I think at 1.9 times adjusted book FY17, I don’t see much of downside out there," he added."It has become very fashionable to only focus on the retail focused banks but if one is looking at medium to long-term then I think it is these opportunities’ when there is fear and panic which is unfounded to an extent which offers a good excellent opportunity for long-term investors to get in to quality names like Axis Bank or Yes Bank or even ICICI Bank. So, I would be in the camp that would advocate long-term investors to use this opportunity to look at these quality names," he said.