Axis Bank on Thursday posted an 18% jump in its net profit for the second quarter of the financial year, beating analyst estimates.

What Happened: The private lender's net profit came in at ₹6,917.57 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared with the ₹5,863.56 crore it earned in the same quarter a year ago. This exceeded analyst estimates of ₹6,332.64 crore.

The bank's net interest income, which is the difference between interest earned on loans and interest paid on deposits, stood at ₹13,483.2 crore for the quarter, up 9.5% from ₹12,314.56 crore posted a year ago. The figure was slightly lower than analyst forecasts of ₹13,546.01 crore.

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Key Numbers: The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPA) and net NPA levels as of September 30 came in at 1.44% and 0.34%, respectively, as compared with 1.54% and 0.34% at the end of June.

Axis Bank overtook Yes Bank as India’s top payment service provider on the unified payments interface (UPI) network last month, thanks mostly to the former’s ties with PhonePe and Google Pay as well as gains in user base following regulatory action against Paytm Payments Bank.

Price Action: Ahead of results, Axis Bank's stock ended Thursday’s session at ₹1,131, down 1.9%. The stock has inched up around 3% so far this year.

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