Stock analysts have maintained ‘buy’ rating on State Bank of India (SBI) stock with an intraday target of Rs 1134.

According to them, interested traders can purchase the stock on dips with a strict stop loss of Rs 1090. If the stock market remains on positive track, the stock pricing becomes more attractive, and reach above Rs 1155.
 
Shares of the company, on Wednesday (Jan 28), closed at Rs 1,110.45 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of shares traded at the BSE was 1348156. Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 119.59 and 9.47 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 2350 and a low of Rs 991.10 on BSE.

The stock has great potential and it can still exhibit superb surge. So don’t miss the chance to reap gains.

SBI, on Jan 24, announced that the central board of the bank and boards of SBI Factors & Commercial Services (SBI Factors) and Global Trade Finance (GTFL), both being subsidiaries of SBI have decided to merge SBI Factors with GTFL, subject to necessary regulatory approvals.

For the three month period ended December 31, SBI has posted a growth of 51.34% in its consolidated net profit after minority interest of Rs 36,076.10 million.

The bank’s consolidated net interest income earned grew 38.29 % to 254,945.5 million for the third quarter, as against Rs 184,345.1 million during the corresponding period of the last year.

The bank reported a substantial rise in standalone net profit for the quarter ended Dec. 2008. During the quarter, the profit of the company rose 37.03% to Rs 24,784.20 million from Rs 18,086.40 million in the same quarter previous year.

The bank reported EPS of Rs 39.04 during the quarter, registering 13.59% growth over prior year period.

SBI Capital Markets (SBI Caps), the investment banking arm of SBI has got the ‘Bank of the Year’ award in the Asia Pacific Awards 2008 as a head in the region of project finance organized by Thomson Reuters in London.

Moreover, SBI (on Jan 13) signed a MoU with the government of Gujarat in order to create a fund of Rs 50 billion for investing in equity of infrastructure projects.

The bank said that this will be over and above the deployment Rs 300 billion in small, medium enterprise (SME).

Other stocks from the same sector that looks good for short-term as well as long-term trading includes PNB, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank.