The first quarter earnings season for India's biggest private lenders is in, and this time it is ICICI Bank that has pulled ahead in the profit race. Four heavyweights, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank, have reported their numbers for the opening quarter of the current financial year, and while the country's largest private bank, HDFC Bank, moved a touch slowly, Yes Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank comfortably beat what the market had expected.
HDFC Bank's net profit rose about 5 percent year on year to ₹19,060 crore, coming in slightly below street estimates. ICICI Bank, by contrast, saw its standalone net profit jump 16 percent to ₹14,805 crore. Yes Bank's profit shot up 34 percent to cross ₹1,071 crore, while Kotak Mahindra Bank posted a 26 percent rise in profit to ₹4,123 crore in the first quarter of financial year 2026-27.
HDFC Bank: a mixed showing
For the country's largest private bank, the quarter was a mixed bag on loans and asset quality. Its net interest income (NII), the money it earns from lending, grew 6.7 percent year on year to ₹33,535.95 crore. The net interest margin (NIM) stood at 3.26 percent of total assets. The encouraging part was asset quality: gross NPA improved from 1.40 percent a year earlier to 1.17, pointing to a healthier loan book. There is, however, a worry for shareholders, as the HDFC Bank stock has already fallen more than 17 percent so far in 2026.
ICICI Bank: numbers ahead of estimates
ICICI Bank's first quarter figures came in better than what analysts had pencilled in. Total income rose more than 5 percent to ₹54,246.84 crore, up from ₹51,451.81 crore in the June 2025 quarter. Standalone net profit climbed a strong 16 percent to ₹14,805 crore, and interest income was up 12.7 percent year on year. Both loans and deposits grew more than 14 percent, a sign that the bank's core business keeps expanding steadily.
Yes Bank: profit leaps 34 percent
Yes Bank had a strong quarter on both profit and core income. Net profit surged 34 percent to cross ₹1,071 crore, up from ₹801 crore in the same quarter last year. The bank also strengthened its asset quality, pulling net NPA down to just 0.2 percent. On a quarter on quarter basis, provisions, the money set aside against the risk of loans going bad, rose more than 100 percent to ₹394 crore. A rise in provisions signals that the bank has built up a bigger safety cushion to handle potential bad loans. Lending stayed robust too, with net advances growing 18.4 percent year on year to ₹2.85 lakh crore.
Kotak Mahindra Bank: profit beats forecasts
Kotak Mahindra Bank turned in a powerful performance in the first quarter of the current financial year. Its profit rose 26 percent to ₹4,123 crore, well above market expectations. Gross NPA eased year on year to 1.18 percent. The net interest margin (NIM), however, slipped slightly from 4.65 percent a year earlier to 4.53 percent. On deposits the bank did well, with total deposits growing 14 percent year on year to ₹5.59 lakh crore, while current account deposits rose 15 percent to ₹78,107 crore.
Taken together, three of the four lenders, ICICI, Yes and Kotak Mahindra, beat market expectations this quarter, while HDFC Bank's numbers came in a shade weaker than forecast. In terms of the pace of profit growth Yes Bank's 34 percent jump was the fastest, whereas by the sheer size of its earnings ICICI Bank emerged as the biggest name of the season.
