(Reuters) - Axis Bank Ltd, India's third-biggest private sector lender by assets, reported a surprise fourth-quarter loss, plagued by a rise in provisions for bad loans.
Net loss was 21.89 billion rupees ($327.94 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with a profit of 12.25 billion rupees a year ago, the Mumbai-based bank said.
Analysts had on average expected a profit of 5.14 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans rose to 6.77 percent at end-March, compared with 5.28 percent in the preceding quarter and 5.04 percent a year ago.
($1 = 66.7500 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Shounak Dasgupta)
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