The Axis Bank stock zoomed in trade today after the private sector lender reported over two-fold rise in net profit to Rs 1,680.85 crore for the third quarter ended December 31 led by former Chief Executive Shikha Sharma.  After captioning the bank for nine years, Sharma handed over the pedals to Amitabh Chaudhry in December. The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 726.44 crore in the matching period of the previous fiscal.

The large-cap stock rose up to 6.38% at 703 levels – a fresh 52-week high- in trade today compare to the previous close of 660.80 on the BSE.

The stock has been rising for the last two days and risen 4.76% during the period.  The stock opened with a gain of 4.10% at 687.90 on the BSE. The stock was the top gainer on Sensex, Nifty today. The stock is trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving an average of 639.11 and 609.66.

The stock has gained 15.93% during the last one year and risen 11% since the commencement of this year.

The lender logged net notice income growth of 18 percent to 5,604 crores, highest in last 10 quarters.

Total income during the segment under review rose to Rs 18,130.42 crore as against Rs 14,314.63 crore in the year-ago period, Axis Bank said.

Net non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 2.36 percent of the net advances as on December 31, 2018, down from 2.56 percent by the end of December 2017.

Gross NPAs (or bad loans), however, worsened to 5.75 percent of the gross advances, up from 5.28 percent a year ago.

In value terms, the gross NPAs stood at Rs 30,854.67 crore in December quarter as against Rs 25,000.51 crore in the same period the previous year. Net bad loans were Rs 12,233.29 crore as against Rs 11,769.49 crore.

The bank said it has witnessed healthy loan growth during the quarter, with domestic loan rising by 18 percent year-on-year; while retail loan book grew by 20 percent.

Its retail advance comprises 49 percent of the total advances, Axis Bank said.