April 27 (Reuters) – Shares of Axis Bank dropped as much as 4.8% on Monday after the Indian lender reported lower-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter, pressured by higher provisions and the approval of $2 billion equity fundraise.
The stock was trading down 3.7% at 1,316 rupees, as of 10:27 a.m. IST.
The private lender posted a 0.7% decline in fourth-quarter profit on Saturday to 70.71 billion rupees, while analysts had expected a profit of 73.16 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The bank made a one-time provision of 20 billion rupees ($212.47 million) for macro risks, including potential stress from the West Asia conflict, though CLSA said the impact was effectively offset by a 21-billion-rupee tax writeback linked to its Citibank deal.
“The bank took a 20 billion rupees provision given global macro uncertainty. While it seems to make the Street nervous, we would not read too much into it,” CLSA said.
($1 = 94.1312 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Mridula Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
