ICICI Bank hits 20-month high, surpasses L&T in market-cap ranking

The stock has recorded its sharpest intra-day rally since May 16, 2014.

ICICI Bank hit 20-month high of Rs 299, up 9.5% on the BSE in intra-day trade after the private sector lender reported a nearly three-fold jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 2,025 crore in March 2017 quarter. The bank had logged profit of Rs 702 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The board of directors of the bank has recommended issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:10 i.e one equity share of Rs 2 each for every ten fully paid-up equity shares held (including ADS holders) as on the record date. The board also recommended a dividend of Rs 2.50 per equity share of face value of Rs 2 each.

Sharekhan believes that the worst in terms of asset quality slippages is behind. The ICICI Bank management has guided that the pace of slippages in FY2018E will be slower compared to FY2017.

“We believe that H2FY2018E can see more meaningful improvements in asset quality, which will be important for the gradual re-rating of the stock (currently trading at 1.8x FY2019E ABV). We are upgrading our recommendation to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ with a revised price target of Rs 320,” the brokerage firm said in result update.

“ICICI Bank has fully utilized the available floating (Rs 1,515 crore) and contingent provisions (Rs 1,528 crore) and has guided for significant moderation in slippages/provisions going ahead. We maintain BUY with price target of Rs 330 (1.5x FY19E ABV),” said analyst at Antique Stock Broking in Q4 result review.

A strong run in the market price of ICICI Bank saw the bank surpassing Larsen & Toubro (Rs 161,811 crore) in overall market capitalization (market-cap) ranking.

With the market-cap of Rs 173,777 crore, ICICI Bank now stands behind Maruti Suzuki India, which has market-cap of Rs 200,435 crore, the BSE data showed.

ICICI Bank has recorded its sharpest intra-day gain in past three years. Earlier, on May 16, 2014, the stock rallied 14% in intra-day deal.