Shares of hit a 52-week high of ₹199.90 on the NSE on Wednesday, surging over 10 per cent to trade at ₹196.76 around 11.08 am, making it one of the most active counters of the session with over 6.38 crore shares changing hands and a traded value of ₹1,249 crore. The rally follows the , which came in significantly ahead of street expectations.
Brokerages and fund houses are turning more constructive on the stock. JM Financial upgraded its target price to ₹200 from ₹160, maintaining an ADD rating, and now values the bank at 1.1x FY28E book value. The brokerage noted that credit cost fell sharply to 1.9 per cent versus its own estimate of 3.1 per cent, while PAT beat JM Financial’s estimate by 115 per cent. Nirmal Bang’s retail research desk noted the result as “above expectations,” with adjusted PAT of ₹534 crore against their estimate of ₹410 crore. The stock, they noted, trades at a trailing price-to-adjusted book value of 1.2x, suggesting room for re-rating.
The Q4FY26 numbers that have driven the excitement: net profit rose 68 per cent year-on-year and 159 per cent sequentially to ₹530 crore, while net interest income grew modestly to ₹2,795 crore. The headline numbers, however, are secondary to the asset quality trajectory. Gross NPA ratio eased to 3.3 per cent and credit cost fell sharply to 2.0 per cent from 3.9 per cent a year ago, aided by lower slippages particularly in the Emerging Entrepreneurs Business portfolio. Provisions dropped to ₹677 crore against an expected ₹1,008 crore. Net interest margin recovered to 6.2 per cent from 5.9 per cent in the previous quarter.
Management has maintained its FY27 exit return-on-assets guidance of 1.6–1.8 per cent, a target the market appears to be increasingly crediting. At current levels, the stock has gained nearly 34 per cent over the past month and 38 per cent year-to-date, sharply outperforming the Nifty Private Bank index which is down about 8 per cent in the same period.