Karvy Stock Broking Limited has maintained ‘buy’ rating on ICICI Bank stock with a target of Rs 700 within 1-3 days.

According to Karvy, interested traders can purchase the stock above Rs 660 with a strict stop loss of Rs 645. If the stock market remains positive, the stock pricing becomes more attractive, and reach above Rs 710.
 
Shares of the bank, on Monday (Sep 01), closed at Rs 664.55 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of shares traded at the BSE was 1753098. Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 36.93 and 18.37 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 1465 and a low of Rs 515.10 on BSE.

Banking sector, the interest rate sensitive counter, which battered quite some times in the immediate past on worries over RBI constraining the money supply to control rising inflationary figures, has been showing smart recovery from the last few trading sessions. Yesterday, the banking stocks supported the stock market to made smart recovery in the end. So grab the chance and reap better gains.

Kalpana Morparia, regarded in the Indian financial sector as one of the public faces of ICICI Bank and a trouble-shooter for the group, has resigned on August 29.

On August 25, the major private banking institution allotted 3,893 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each on Aug. 18, 2008 under the employees stock option scheme, 2000 (ESOS).

ICICI Bank, on August 20, sold $275 million worth of highly volatile credit derivatives out of the country in order to restrict its exposure to such portfolios.

Moreover, ICICI Bank, on August 19, entered into a $250 million agreement with Export-Import (Exim) Bank of United States to finance capital goods imports of Indian corporates from USA.

On August 12, ICICI Bank allotted 859 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each on Aug. 04, 2008 under the employees stock option scheme, 2000 (ESOS).

ICICI Bank, on July 31, increased interest rates for various tenors of retail fixed deposits by 0.75% to 1% with effect from August 01, 2008.

It is also believed that the plan of transferring the low profitable business of home loans to a division will assist the bank to maintain the margins at current level.

Other stocks from the same sector that looks good for short-term as well as long-term trading includes Kotak Mahindra, Yes Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.