Union Bank Ltd: Buy

CMP: Rs.123

State-run Union Bank of India came out with a profit of Rs 96.12 crore in March, 2016 quarter, due to higher provisions for bad loans.  

As many as 11 accounts worth Rs.2,520 crore were restructured under the 5/25 scheme, out of which four accounts were in the power sector and three from the steel sector. Both the sectors have started to perform. 

The bank wrote off loans worth Rs.785 crore during the year, while it recovered Rs.2,204 crore from written off accounts, out of which Rs.395 crore were in the Q4FY16, up from Rs.196 crore in the three months to December. 

Loans worth Rs.1,835 crore have gone into SDR during the March quarter, while it sold Rs.177 crore of NPAs to asset reconstruction companies in the quarter. 

Net interest income for the March quarter stood at Rs.2,085 crore, marginally down from Rs.2,122 crore a year ago, and non-interest income also slipped to Rs.997 crore from Rs.1,143 crore.

Share of Casa deposits rose by 310 bps to 32.3% and the bank has set a target of taking this to over 33% in the current fiscal. 

Savings deposit grew 13.4%, while share of high cost deposits declined to 2.1% from 3%. 

Higher Casa helped the bank improve its NIM by 10 bps to 2.32%. Non-interest income for the full year rose to 3.1%. 

Total advances increased 5.7% to Rs.2,77,725 crore, while domestic advances rose 4.3% to Rs.251653 crore. 

The bank has kept a target of 9.3% advances growth in the current fiscal and a deposit growth of 7%. 

The provision coverage slipped to 50.98% from 59.23% in the same period of 2014-15. 

The bank's capital adequacy ratio under Basel III improved to 10.56% from 10.22% in March last year, with the tier I being at 8.14%. 

Moreover, if we look at the daily candle stick chart then we would find that the share of Union Bank of India Ltd is trading above its 21D and 50D EMAs, adding further to the overall bullishness, to the counter. 

Therefore, buy the stock of Union Bank of India Ltd at the CMP of Rs.123, for a short term target of Rs.141. Please keep a SL of Rs.119.