Technical Analyst Salil Sharma has maintained 'buy' rating on Allahabad Bank to achieve an intraday target of Rs 166

According to Mr. Sharma, interested traders can purchase the stock with a stop loss of Rs 154.

The shares of the bank, on May 13, closed at Rs 158.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 177 and a low of Rs 56.15 on BSE.

Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 30.05 and 5.30 respectively.

On May 10, the bank declared that it has duly redeemed its 7% Tier II Series III Bonds (Rs 1 billion) on maturity date i. e. Apr. 30, 2010.

For the fiscal ended March 10, Allahabad Bank has recorded an increase of 57% in its net profit, which stood at Rs 12.06 billion.

The bank's net interest income during the financial year surged 23% to Rs 26.50 billion.

On quarterly basis, Allahabad Bank announced a fall of 15% in its net profit to Rs 2.24 billion because of higher provisioning and lower other income.

But, the bank's net interest income during the quarter climbed 25% at Rs 7.42 billion. Deposits came up by 25% to Rs 1,060.56 billion.

The bank functionaries said that it is eyeing to strengthen its footprint in southern region and it aims to launch 40 to 95 new divisions in 2010 in southern region.