Mumbai, Jan 17, 2026, 17:38 IST — The market has closed.
- ICICI Bank shares closed Friday at 1,410.80 rupees, slipping roughly 0.5%.
- The lender’s profit for the December quarter fell short of expectations, weighed down by a surge in provisions.
- Traders will be looking for fresh details on provisioning, margins, and loan growth once markets reopen.
ICICI Bank Ltd (ICICIBANK.NS) shares closed the week lower and are now gearing up for a key event: quarterly earnings due Saturday, during the market holiday. 1
The bank reported a 4% drop in standalone net profit year-on-year, coming in at 11,317.86 crore rupees for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2025. Net interest income — the difference between interest earned on loans and paid on deposits — increased by 7.7% to 21,932.2 crore rupees. The net interest margin held steady at 4.30%. 2
Provisions surged past 2,556 crore rupees, more than doubling after the Reserve Bank of India ordered the bank to boost reserves against a segment of agricultural “priority sector” loans. This priority sector lending category is tightly regulated, covering areas like agriculture, and it directly impacts the capital and provisioning requirements banks face. 3
During the post-results call, executive director Sandeep Batra revealed the regulator identified loans amounting to 200–250 billion rupees that were wrongly classified as agriculture loans, qualifying them for priority-sector benefits. He emphasized these loans were “not delinquent,” and the bank had already made full additional provisions. 4
ICICI Bank’s shares dipped on Friday ahead of earnings, bucking the broader market’s modest 0.23% rise in the BSE Sensex. Some rivals fared better—State Bank of India and IndusInd Bank climbed—but Kotak Mahindra Bank lost ground. 5
Brokerages heading into the earnings report were generally confident about steady loan growth but warned of potential headwinds from rising provisions and squeezed margins. Kotak Institutional Equities didn’t foresee “any negative commentary on asset quality,” whereas Nomura anticipated a slight uptick in credit costs due to seasonal slippages linked to agriculture. 6
ICICI Bank’s U.S.-listed ADR (IBN) in New York last changed hands at $30.87, ticking up roughly 0.2% from its previous close.
The immediate concern is that the RBI’s review might stretch into a prolonged cleanup, forcing banks to keep provisions high or divert management focus toward classifications and controls instead of growth. Another risk lies in margins: while rate cuts usually boost loan demand, they can also compress spreads if deposit rates don’t drop quickly enough.
The results come amid a hectic period for Indian banks. HDFC Bank, the sector’s frontrunner, posted profits above expectations and saw margins rise sequentially. It also highlighted that the RBI has lowered its benchmark rate by 125 basis points — or 1.25 percentage points — since February 2025. 7
For ICICI, traders will zero in on one key question: is the hit from provisions a one-off caused by classification changes, or the beginning of a sustained rise in credit costs? Management’s guidance on deposit pricing and margin resilience will also be closely watched, especially if ongoing rate cuts continue to pressure the system.
India’s markets reopen Monday, with traders facing a straight run up to the Republic Day holiday on Jan. 26—no exchange breaks scheduled in between. 8
