ICICI Bank share price jumps 3% after Kotak maintains 'buy' call

The share price of ICICI Bank jumped almost 4 percent intraday on April 9 after research and broking firm Kotak Institutional Equities maintained its “buy” call on the stock but cut target to Rs 490 from Rs 615 per share. The bank continued to be the top pick for Kotak, a CNBC-TV18 report said.

The underlying conditions provided a favourable testing ground for the bank, which was well-positioned to come through the period with a lower degree of stress, Kotak said.

Amid the ongoing lockdown, the bank has launched its services on messaging platform WhatsApp, a move that will allow customers to avail banking services 24x7 without the need to visit a branch.

"Our retail customers can execute a host of their banking requirements on their own, without visiting a branch. … this would add immense convenience to our customers as it allows them to bank while they are on social media," ICICI Bank Executive Director Anup Bagchi said in a release.

ICICI Bank is one of the largest private banks in the country with 5,275 branches and a loan book of Rs 6,35,654 crore. It trades at attractive valuations and trades less than 1-time adjusted book and holds many subsidiary companies which can create additional value, said A K Prabhakar, Head - Research at IDBI Capital.

ICICI Bank has put all loans and credit facilities into two categories, depending on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. For all credit card dues, standard interest rates of the card variant will be levied. The interest rate specified at the time of availing of the EMI facility would be levied for all EMI transactions.

The stock, which has gained 16 percent in the last 15 days, was quoting at Rs 330.75, up Rs 11.75, or 3.68 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 336.15 and an intraday low of Rs 326.30.