ICICI Bank hits 6-month high, stock soars 6%

ICICI Bank on Wednesday, said it has made full disclosures about its bad loans and non-performing assets (NPAs) in its annual report, investor presentations and analysts' calls.

Shares of ICICI Bank hit a six-month high of Rs 337, up 6% on the BSE after the private sector lender on Wednesday, said it has made full disclosures about its bad loans and non-performing assets (NPAs) in its annual report, investor presentations and analysts’ calls.

The stock was trading at its highest level since February 8, 2018. It touched the 52-week high of Rs 365 on January 29, 2018, in intra-day trade.

ICICI Bank has made the statement on clarification on the media report of 'ICICI Bank masked bad loans through change in accounting policy.”

“The media report is a mischievous and motivated attempt to malign the image of ICICI Bank in the eyes of its investors. The Bank's accounts are audited by reputed Statutory Auditors whose audit report and audit opinion form part of the Bank's annual report,” ICICI Bank said in a company update.

"The Bank classifies loans as non-performing {sub-standard/ doubtful/ loss) and makes provisions for them as per RBI guidelines. Write-offs are generally made out of existing provisions against existing NPAs. The write-offs do not impact loan classification, additions to NPAs, the profit & loss account or the net NPA ratio of the Bank,” it added. CLICK HERE FOR BANK STATEMENT

Meanwhile, ICICI Bank had outperformed the market by surging 14% since July 27, post-June quarter (Q1FY19) results. On comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 2% during the same period.

“The bank reported reduced slippages of Rs 41 billion during the quarter. Gross slippage of 3.3% was at a multi-quarter low. GNPA in % terms were 8.81%, down 3 bps sequentially while in absolute terms, stock of GNPA, at Rs 535 billion, was down by around Rs 6 billion. Recoveries during the quarter were Rs 20.4 billion,” analysts at KRChoksey Shares and Securities said in result update.

“Though we reduce our FY19/20E PAT estimates by 25%/4% on account of higher expected credit costs, we remain positive on the consolidated entity which offers a good opportunity to play the financialization theme. We estimate ROE of 6.5%/11.5% for FY19/20E. We value the entity on SOTP basis, valuing the bank at 1.8x FY20E ABV and adding Rs 112 per share for the subs,” the brokerage firm said with maintain ‘BUY’ rating on the stock and target price of Rs 389 per share.