SBI surpasses ONGC to become most valued PSU stock

SBI was up 2% at Rs 296, trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 299 touched on April 5, 2017 on BSE

State Bank of India (SBI) surpassed oil exploration major Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to become most valued public sector undertaking (PSU) stock in terms of market capitalization (m-cap) in intra-day trade on Tuesday.

SBI with m-cap of Rs 239,808 crore was ahead of ONGC having m-cap of Rs 236,003 crore at 10:56 am; the BSE data showed. On Monday, the m-cap of ONGC and SBI was Rs 234,977 crore and Rs 234,902 crore, respectively.

SBI was up 2% at Rs 296, trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 299 touched on April 5, 2017, while ONGC (0.41% at Rs 184) was marginally higher as compared to 0.89% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Thus far in the calendar year 2017, SBI outperformed the market with over 18% rise against 11.5% gain in the benchmark index, while ONGC underperformed the market by rising just 4% during the same period. 

Analysts at ICICI Securities maintain ‘buy’ rating on SBI with a target price of Rs 335.

“SBI has depicted strength in the current environment managing the asset quality and profitability well. Relatively lower exposure to stressed sectors/corporates is also keeping expectations high. We roll over valuations to FY19 and revise upwards the valuation of subsidiaries like SBI Life (post 3.9% stake sale in SBI Life at Rs 1,755 crore). Hence, we revise our target price upwards to Rs 335 from Rs 310 earlier,” the brokerage firm said in a company update.