Brokerages bank on banking stocks; pick ICICI Bank, Axis Bank as their top bets

ICICI Bank share price: Brokerages are bullish on bank stocks and most of them have recommended ICICI Bank as their top bet. Brokerage firm Macquarie has tagged Outperform on ICICI Bank with a target price of Rs 1050 while Jefferies, while maintaining a Buy rating, has given a target of Rs 1150 on it.  

ICICI Bank shares were trading at Rs 897.75 on the NSE around 1 pm today and were down by Rs 4.70 or 0.52 per cent from the Monday closing price. On BSE the scrip was trading at Rs 897.85, down Rs 5.15 or 0.57 per cent around this time.

Also Read: Traders Diary on 20 stocks: Buy, Sell or Hold strategy on Federal Bank, SBI Life, CONCOR, Escorts Kubota, others diary 

The ICICI Bank stock has surged nearly 26 per cent over the past 6 months and has traded within a 52-week range of Rs 642.15 to Rs 958.20 apiece.  

Morgan Stanley also prefers ICICI Bank over its other private and public peers along with Axis Bank, Bank of India (BOI), Bank of Baroda, and Federal Bank.  

Meanwhile, Jefferies has maintained a Buy rating on Kotak Mahindra Bank and has given a target price of Rs 2470. 

Banking on Banks for Returns 

According to Morgan Stanley, bank stocks were down by 0.6 per cent in December 2022. In a report published by this brokerage, it noted that the S&P BSE Bankex was up 15 per cent as compared to Sensex which was 3.30 per cent in 2022.  

The brokerage firm opines that access to retail deposits will likely capture the upcoming growth cycle for banking sector.  

Bank Stocks in focus  

Bank stocks have been in focus since the past few weeks as the Nifty Bank and S&P BSE Bankex are trading in green. 

On Tuesday, Nifty Bank was trading up 0.38 per cent around this time while BSE Bankex was trading 0.37 per cent higher.  

In the last five days Nifty Bank has climbed nearly 2 per cent and S&P BSE Sensex over 1 per cent.  

Year To Date (YTD) the Nifty Bank has climbed 0.41 per cent and S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.38 per cent.  

Click here to get more stock market updates I Zee Business Live