October’s been hectic month for India Inc as companies released their second-quarter results. A lot of large cap and midcap banks announced their Q2 numbers in the past few weeks.
As a result, top private lenders including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the most searched on Google Trends in the last 30 days.
While HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank reported profit growth, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank reported muted performance weighed down by one-time provisions.
HDFC Bank Q2 net profit jumps 10%
HDFC Bank posted a 10% rise in its consolidated net profit for Q2 FY26 at Rs 19,610.67 crore. On a standalone basis, the net profit rose 10.82% to Rs 18,641.28 crore.
Its core net interest income rose 4.8% to Rs 31,550 crore, helped by a nearly 10% growth in advances, but restricted by a compression in net interest margin to 3.27%, compared to 3.5% in the year-ago period.
Non-interest income grew 25% to Rs 21,730 crore during the quarter, helping it deliver the profit growth to a large extent along with the operating expenses, which went up by 6.4% to Rs 17,980 crore.
From an asset quality perspective, the bank had gross slippages of Rs 7,400 crore, which included Rs 1,100 crore of agri advances. Gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 1.24% as of September from 1.40% three months ago and 1.36% in the year-ago period.
Axis Bank Q2 profit drops 25% as RBI-mandated provision bites
Axis Bank reported a 25.31% decline in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter to Rs 5,528 crore, hit by an RBI-mandated provision of Rs 1,231 crore on crop loans. On a standalone basis, the bank’s net profit fell to Rs 5,090 crore from Rs 6,918 crore in the year-ago period.
Despite registering a 12% loan growth, its core net interest income went up by just 2% on-year to Rs 13,745 crore, impacted by a narrowing in the net interest margin (NIM) to 3.73% from 3.99% in the year-ago period.
Chief Financial Officer Puneet Sharma told reporters that NIMs will bottom out in the December quarter, provided there is no further rate cut by the Reserve Bank, according to PTI.
The bank’s other income degrew by 1% to Rs 6,625 crore, largely impacted by a 55% dip in trading income at Rs 498 crore during the reporting quarter.
Its provisions went up sharply to Rs 3,547 crore from Rs 2,204 crore in the year-ago period, primarily due to the discontinued crop loan products.
“Following an RBI advisory, post its FY25 annual inspection, the bank in Q2FY26 made an additional one-time standard asset provision of Rs 1,231 crore for two discontinued crop loan variants,” the bank said in a statement.
Gross slippages increased to Rs 5,696 crore from Rs 4,443 crore in the year-ago period. The gross non-performing assets ratio stood at 1.46%, as against 1.57% in the quarter-ago period.
ICICI Bank Q2 FY26: Profit rises 3.2%
ICICI Bank reported that its consolidated net profit for the September quarter inched up by 3.2% to Rs 13,357 crore, as a fall in provisions helped overcome the impact of margin compression.
On a standalone basis, the second-largest private sector lender reported a 5.2% growth in its post-tax profit at Rs 12,359 crore, up from Rs 11,746 crore in the year-ago period.
The core net interest income increased 7.4% to Rs 21,529 crore on the back of 10.6% growth in advances and a compression in the net interest margin to 4.30% from 4.27% in the year-ago period.
Non-interest income, excluding treasury performance, saw a 13.2% growth to Rs 7,356 crore, but treasury income showed a sharp fall to Rs 220 crore as against Rs 680 crore in the year-ago period.
The deposit growth for the bank came in at 7.7% during the quarter.
From an asset quality perspective, gross slippages came in at Rs 5,034 crore, marginally down from Rs 5,073 crore in the year-ago period. The gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 1.58% as of September 30.
Kotak Mahindra Bank Q2 FY26: Profit dips 11% YoY
Kotak Mahindra Bank reported an 11% decline in its consolidated net profit for the September quarter to Rs 4,468 crore, pulled down by slower growth in core income and weak performance of some subsidiaries.
On a standalone basis, the private sector lender reported a 3% fall in net profit to Rs 3,253 crore for the reporting quarter.
Total consolidated income dropped to Rs 24,901.39 crore in the second quarter of FY2025-26 from Rs 26,880.02 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Core net interest income grew by 4% to Rs 7,311 crore on the back of 16% loan growth but was restricted by a sharp decline in the net interest margin to 4.54% as against 4.91% in the year-ago period.
From an asset quality perspective, fresh slippages came down to Rs 1,629 crore from Rs 1,875 crore in the year-ago period, and the gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 1.39% as of September from 1.48% in June.
Net NPAs declined to 0.32% from 0.43% at the end of the second quarter of the previous fiscal.
