Srinagar: At a time when the banking industry is going through challenging times and most of the government owned banks are not finding favour with the market analysts, the state owned Jammu and Kashmir Bank have become the cynosure of the stock market analysts with majority of the analysts recommending a buy on the share of the bank to their clients with an expected return of 70% in the near term.
A report titled ‘5 Banking Stocks that Look Attractive Again’ compiled by the ETIG Database wherein they have recommended five banking sector stocks including the J&K Bank, has been published by a leading business daily. About the Jammu and Kashmir Bank the report has stated,” This bank enjoys a dominant position in Jammu & Kashmir (85% of its deposits and 51% of its loan book comes from J&K). Due to its high CASA ratio of 53%, net interest margin (NIM) is also at a high 4%. Improvement in business environment and reduction in stressed assets are other points worth mention. Net profit for the quarter jumped 31% y-o-y and 78% q-o-q. Its gross and net NPA fell to 9% and 3.91% during the second quarter of 2018-19. With pace of stressed asset accretion moderating, credit cost should moderate further. Credit growth will get a boost from resumption of tourism, tapping of under-penetrated market of credit to apple growers, rise in investment activity, etc.The report has further added that the analysts believe this trend will continue.
