ICICI Bank hits 33-month high; market-cap crosses Rs 2-lakh crore

ICICI Bank surged 6% to Rs 317, hitting 33-month high on the BSE in intra-day trade, set to join the elite league of corporate entities with a market value of over Rs 2 lakh crore on closing levels. The stock of private sector lender is trading at its highest level since March 3, 2015.

ICICI Bank with the market capitalisation (market-cap) of Rs 201,178 crore is at number 13th position in overall market-cap ranking, the BSE data shows. At 10:47 AM; the stock was trading 5% higher at Rs 314, as compared to 1% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Earlier, on March 3, 2015, ICICI Bank had market-cap of Rs 201,542 crore on closing levels. It had record high market-cap of Rs 222,359 crore on January 28, 2015 with a market price of Rs 348.95, the CapitalinePlus data shows.

Analyst at Jefferies upgraded the recommendation on ICICI Bank to buy from hold post September 2017 quarter (Q2FY18) results. It raised the target price to Rs 350 from Rs 295, the media report suggests.

“There were some asset quality positives – slippages continued to soften (albeit with a large share from outside the watch list) and provision coverage improved. Some key operating metrics were also robust – net interest margins (NIMs) at 3.27%, well above guidance; core loan growth strong in the mid-teens and continued cost-income momentum,” analysts at JP Morgan said in result update.

“We see steady progress toward asset quality resolution and improvement in operating metrics – the key overhang in 2H18 (October-March) is a potential negative slippage impact from the RBI inspection report. We continue to see value in the stock over the longer term and will watch asset quality resolution in 2H18 as the key stock price driver,” the brokerage firm said with netural rating on the stock.

“We believe that ICICI Bank would witness a significant improvement in profitability over FY18-20 supported by easing of the credit cycle and acceleration in balance sheet growth. Being strongly capitalized with Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 13.7%, the bank is well positioned to take provisioning knocks in the near term and pursue attractive growth opportunities in the longer run, “analyst at IIFL Wealth Management said in result update with ‘buy’ rating on the stock with target price of Rs 360.

ICICI Bank