Quasi-axisymmetry, external kinks and ballooning stability are studied with respect to the plasma shaping and the variation in the pressure and current profiles for NCSX. We show that while the kink stability may require a delicate boundary shaping, most quasi-axisymmetry may be achieved using a few low order modes that eliminate the large mirror fields arising partly from boundary shaping for the kink stability. In addition, we demonstrate that the kink and ballooning instability may be improved in the NCSX configurations by a more peaked pressure profile or a broader current profile. Finally, we show numerically that it is possible to construct a quasi-axisymmetric configuration that is stable to the external kink at all current levels for which the edge rotational transform is less than 0.5.
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