ICICI Bank Share Price Continues Run-Up; Motilal Oswal Selects It As Top Pick Within The Sector

ICICI Bank shares ever since the announcement of the quarterly earnings are in focus and in trade on April 26 have again gained to day' high price of Rs. 768.55 per share. This from the Friday's close of Rs. 747.65, equates to gains of 2.79 percent. This is when the indices are being highly choppy given the global cues.

On Saturday, the country's leading private sector lender reported its Q4 earnings result with net profit scaling higher 59% YoY to Rs. 7019 crore. So, as the overall asset quality situation seems to be improving there is bullishness on the counter.

Most of the brokerages have given a target price of above Rs. 930 and this has even breached Rs. 1000 levels, with Motilal Oswal having the most optimistic target price of Rs. 1050 per share.

In its report the highly acclaimed brokerage house said, the bank reported an all-round improvement in operating performance,with core PPOP up 21% YoY (excluding dividends), margin improving by 4bp QoQ to 4%, and robust asset quality driving a sharp decline in credit cost, even as the bank increased its contingent provision buffer by INR10.25b. The bank reported a RoA/RoE of 2.1%/17% in 4QFY22. "We expect the bank to deliver a RoA/RoE of 1.9%/16.3% in FY24. The stock remains our top pick in the sector", adds the brokerage firm.

Last at around 11:50 am, the stock traded higher by over 1% at Rs. 759.95 per share on the NSE.