SBI shares rally nearly 3% after Citi’s double upgrade to ‘buy’

Shares of India’s largest PSU lender State Bank of India (SBI) jumped 2.6% to hit a day’s high of Rs 713.55 on the BSE today after the global brokerage firm Citi issued a double upgrade on the stock, moving its rating from ‘sell’ to ‘buy’ and raising the target price to Rs 830.

The revised price target suggests an upside potential of 19.4% in the stock from Monday’s closing price.

Citi’s latest upgrade comes on the back of strong growth visibility, supported by Xpress Credit traction, a robust corporate pipeline, and an accelerated rollout of home loans (HL).


The brokerage firm highlighted SBI’s ability to contain unsecured retail slippages at 0.5%, along with a reduction in the SMA-2 pool, which is expected to curb credit costs.

Citi also pointed out that SBI’s valuations remain inexpensive, trading at 0.85x book value, supported by a 1% return on assets (RoA) and a 15% return on equity (RoE).

Following this optimistic outlook, investor sentiment turned bullish, leading to a surge in SBI’s stock price.

SBI share price history

Over the past 1 year, the shares of BSI have declined by 7.69%, while the Year-To-Date (YTD) change shows a decline of 10.15%. Further, in the last 6 months, it has declined by 12.70%, whereas for 3 months, it has declined by 17.06%. Lastly, in the past 1 month, the stock has declined by 8.52%.

SBI shares technical placement

Currently, the shares of SBI are placed below all their significant short, medium, and long-term exponential moving averages (EMAs) and are oscillating near the 29.8 mark on the RSI, according to Trendlyne data.

An RSI below 30 is considered oversold.

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(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)