Buy SBI, target price of 2155: Karvy


Bangalore: Karvy Stock Broking has recommended a market performer rating on State Bank of India (SBI) with a target price of 2155. According to Karvy, SBI's net interest income grew by 9.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 63.2 billion higher than its estimates - of 59.2 billion - by almost 6.8 percent higher mainly due to better liability-side management. State Bank of India is an India-based commercial bank. In addition to banking, through its various subsidiaries, it also provides a whole range of financial services, which include life insurance, merchant banking, mutual funds, security trading, pension fund management and primary dealership in the money market. It operates in four business segments: Treasury, corporate/wholesale banking, retail banking and other banking business. In the last quarter, SBI's operating profit went up by merely three percent YoY to 46.2 billion mainly due to much higher provisions for wage revision; during the quarter the bank made provisions for wage revision of 4.83 billion and 900 million for new branches and installations of ATM. Karvy says, overall the quarterly result was better than its estimates on net interest income and operating profit level, though on net profit level the bank's performance was in-line. Karvy has revised the earning estimates upward for financial year 2010 and FY11 by 10.2 percent and 6.2 percent to factor in higher margin, strong traction in fee income and higher treasury income. With the recommended target price, if the stock is bought at Thursday's closing price of 2,003.45, the percentage of gain would be 7.5 percent.