Axis Bank Ltd. (AxisB) posted strong numbers for Q3FY18 in terms of business growth and profitability while showing improvement in assets quality (62 bps QoQ reduction in GNPA ratio to 5.28% v/s 5.90% in previous quarter). Credit book expanded by six quarter high rate at 21% YoY, despite this NII grew by 9.2% YoY leading to ()5 bps YoY & (7) bps QoQ compression in NIM to 3.38%. Net profitability of the bank improved by 25.3% YoY to Rs7,264.4 mn on the back of significant reduction in the provisioning for NPAs. We see improvement in AxisB's earnings and assets quality going forward, however elevated credit cost (PCR to be...