Axis Bank emerged as a key market outlier during a steep downturn in the Sensex and Nifty 50, driven by strong financial fundamentals, robust deposit growth, and positive brokerage ratings from firms like Citi and Goldman Sachs.

Axis Bank emerged as a key market outlier during a steep downturn in the Sensex and Nifty 50, driven by strong financial fundamentals, robust deposit growth, and positive brokerage ratings from firms like Citi and Goldman Sachs.

Axis Bank emerged as a key market outlier during a steep downturn in the Sensex and Nifty 50, driven by strong financial fundamentals, robust deposit growth, and positive brokerage ratings from firms like Citi and Goldman Sachs.

Axis Bank has proved itself  an outlier in the stock market on a red day that saw many major stocks lose value. BSE benchmark Sensex closed Thursday 1.44 per cent down after shedding 1045 points.

The major laggards were the following:

  • ITC, down 4.24 per cent
  • IndiGo, down 3.36 per cent
  • Powergrid, down 3.16 per cent
  • BEL, down 3.10 per cent
  • Adani Ports, down 2.59 per cent

Only Tech Mahindra (up 0.44 per cent), Axis Bank (up 0.25 per cent), and Infosys (up 0.21 per cent) emerged as gainers.

Now, if you analyse even the gainers, both Tech Mahindra and Infosys had their trading graphs pretty much identical to the larger index. It was just that they had a much better opening versus Wednesday's close to offset today's slide.

The Nifty 50 also closed 371 points lower, or 1.64 per cent down on Thursday vs the previous close. The 50-pack benchmark had a much grimmer story to tell. Three gainers in 30 meant 10 per cent of the Sensex were gainers. But three in 50 works out to just 6 per cent of the Nifty. And it was the same three—Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and Axis Bank.

Now, Axis Bank is a completely different story. The outlier has gained 2.7 per cent over the past week, stayed level over the past 30 days, and given 5.6 per cent returns to shareholders in the past year.

Apple Pay coming to Axis Bank credit card holders seems to have brought back some positivity to the brand. And recent research is looking good for the private lender. On Tuesday, Citi research updated its target price for Axis Bank to ₹1,620 with a BUY rating. Goldman Sachs did the same with a ₹1,477 target price. Axis today closed at ₹1,247 a share on the BSE and ₹1,245 a share on the NSE.

Axis Bank vs HDFC Bank vs Sensex vs Nifty: A snapshot of Oct 8 stock movement | Kotak Securities

Axis Bank managed to mobilise $10.62 billion FCNR(B) deposits as on September 30, 2026, making up 8 per cent of system-wide FCNR(B) mobilisation versus 5.3 per cent deposit market share, as per Citi Research.

This Monday, Axis Bank posted its key figures. Gross advances closed at ₹12,846 billion as on September 30, 2026, up 22.7 per cent year on year, and 8.8 per cent from last quarter.

A day later, the private lender allotted 83,304 equity shares of ₹2 apiece in line with its "exercise of stock options/units under its ESOP/RSU" Scheme. This meant that the paid-up share capital of Axis Bank came to exactly ₹6,227,546,088 after the exercise.

According to Goldman Sachs, cyclical headwinds pertaining to Axis Bank "are largely behind", with margins expected to recover from FY28 through an improvement in the retail-SME mix. Citing that valuations were inexpensive, the research giant stated that Axis Bank's core PPoP growth was expected to be around 18 per cent CAGR in FY27-29.

Axis Bank's fundamentals look good. Its price-to-book ratio is at 1.8, with a quarterly operating profit margin at 35.2 per cent. Cumulatively put, these could be the reason for the lender being the outlier. At around 1.13 pm, ₹87.65 crore traded hands in a block trade via the BSE for around 702,732 shares of Axis Bank at ₹1,247.30 apiece, as per Kotak Securities.

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