Stock market analyst Ashwani Gujral has maintained ‘Buy’ rating on State Bank of India (SBI) for a short term target of Rs 1820.

According to Mr. Gujral, interested traders can buy the stock with a strict stop loss of Rs 1600.

Today, the shares of the bank opened at Rs 1672.70 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Current EPS and P/E of the stock stood at 143.67 & 11.64 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 1935 and a low of Rs 894 on BSE.

State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to merge two of its little-known arms, resuming a slow and controversial attempt to unite its functionings.

SBI Commercial and International Bank (SBICI), a fully-owned arm having two divisions in Mumbai, is planned to be coalesced with India’s biggest by 2009 end.

Factoring services provider Global Trade Finance (GTF) in which SBI holds 92.60% equity stake and Bank of Maharashtra the remaining is slated for joining with SBI Factors, which is in the same line of business.

Merger of SBI with its six associates would be finished by the next six months once the Union Government extends its nod.

Mr. O P Bhatt, SBI Chairman, said, “Once we get the signal from the government, the process will not take more than three to six months. We have taken initiative on our own for the merger.”

SBI is making attempts to get its name listed among top ten banks in the world by the next 3 to 5 years.

Mr. Bhatt stated that SBI has set a high international objective and decided to open ten new foreign divisions during the existing fiscal.

The countries where these new branches will be opened comprise Hong Kong, Singapore and United Kingdom among others.

SBI has also cut its depository rates on all maturities by 25 basis points.

On its special 1,000-day deposit scheme, the bank will offer a rate of 7.5% and a rate of 8% will be offered on the 8-10 year term deposits.

The depository rate of 3% will be offered for maturity between 15 to 45 days, 4% for deposits between 46 to 90 days, 5.25% for 91 to 6 months and 6.25% on deposits having maturity period between 6 months to one year.

For deposits between 1-2 years, the rate is 7% and for deposits with maturity up to 2-years and below 1,000 days, the rate is 7.25%.