New Delhi, Jan. 24 -- Large private sector banks that announced results in the past one week have sailed through the December quarter (Q3FY23) with ease. And why not? Strong systemic credit growth coupled with lower cost of funds has come as a shot in the arm for the sector.

Accordingly, net interest margin (NIM) of Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were at a high in Q3. Axis announced its results on Monday post-market hours and clocked 30 basis points (bps) sequential expansion in NIM. One basis point is 0.01%. Net interest income rose 32% year-on-year (y-o-y) and loan growth was broad-based, up 15% y-o-y.

Even so, the Axis stock fell on Tuesday by more than 2%. "Overall credit growth was moderate at 15% y-o-y and 4% q-o-q ...