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India's Axis Bank reported a bigger-than-expected rise in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by higher core lending income on the back of strong credit demand.

The country's fourth-largest private lender by market capitalisation said its standalone net profit - which excludes its subsidiaries - rose 18% to 69.18 billion rupees ($823.25 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Analysts had expected, on average, 65.27 billion rupees, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, rose 9.5% to 134.83 billion rupees, as per Reuters' calculations.

Loans given by Indian banks have been growing at double-digit percentages since April 2022, boosted by a rise in consumer spending as banks focus on retail loans to tap consumer credit demand.

However, deposit growth has lagged, which is forcing lenders to either slow their loan growth or raise more deposits.

Gross non-performing assets ratio, a key gauge of lenders' asset quality, was at 1.44% at the end of September, compared with 1.54% three months earlier, and 1.73% a year ago.

Axis Bank's shares ended 1.9% lower ahead of the results.

($1 = 84.0330 Indian rupees)