ICICI Bank came off its day's high of Rs 153.50 on Friday despite upbeat Q3 results.

At the current juncture, the scrip of India's second largest bank was higher by 1% at Rs 151.70. It recovered from the day's low of Rs 149.25. It clocked heavy volumes of 1.16 million shares on BSE.

The stock surged sharply from a recent low, but amid much volatility, ahead of the results. From a recent low of Rs 132.30 on 7 January 2003, the scrip surged 13% to Rs 150.15 on 30 January 2003.

Banking analysts are bullish on the stock even though it has witnessed some selling from local institutions of late.

For Q3 ended 31 December 2002, ICICI Bank posted a 371% growth in Q3 net profit to Rs 330.30 crore (Rs 3.3 billion) compared to a net profit of Rs 70 crore for Q3 ended 31 December 2001. While the current Q3 results are of the merged entity (which include results of ICICI following a reverse merger ), the Q3 ended 31 December 2001 results are of the standalone ICICI Bank.

The Q3 net profit is much above market expectations. Analysts had forecast ICICI Bank's net profit at between Rs 240 crore (Rs 2.4 billion) and Rs 280 crore (Rs 2.8 billion) for DQ 2002 compared to Rs 70 crore in DQ 2001, a rise of 243% to 300%.

Total income has risen to Rs 2,826.53 crore (Rs 28.26 billion) from Rs 717.47 crore (Rs 7.17 billion) in Q3 ended 31 December 2001. The poll had forecast net interest income in the range of Rs 813.6 to Rs 835.6 crore (Rs 8.13 to Rs 8.35 billion)  for DQ 2002 as against Rs 333.92 crore (Rs 3.33 billion) in DQ 2001, a growth in the range of 144% to 150%.

As on 31 December 2002, the bank's non-performing customer assets were Rs 3,012 crore (Rs 30.12 billion) constituting 4.90% of customer assets. The bank continues to focus on restructuring on intrinsically viable companies as well as recovery actions, including institution of proceedings under the Securitisation & Reconstruction of Financial Assets & Enforcement of Security Interest Act 2002. The capital adequacy as on 31 December , 2002 was 12.6% (including Tier-1 capital adequacy of 8.2%).

As per recent reports, ICICI Bank intends to reduce its non-performing assets to 2% by June 2004 through various measures including selling and leasing the seized assets of defaulters. Under the Securitisation laws, ICICI Bank had served notices on around 30 companies for recovering NPAs worth over Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion). Of the 30 companies, more than 15 defaulters came up for settlement of dues.

ICICI Bank is one of the leading players in the retail loans segment. The bank recently brought down home loan rates by 0.5% across schemes. The bank has also brought fixed home loan interest rates at par with existing floating rates. Now, loan rates repayable in five years will be available at 8.75% .

After the merger of ICICI with ICICI Bank, the merged entity has become the second largest bank in India, with total assets of about Rs 1,04,000 crore (Rs 1040 billion), 400 branches, 1,000 ATMs, 140 retail finance offices and 8,275 employees.

The bank also has just obtained the Reserve Bank of India's  clearance for foray into UK, Canada, China, Dubai and Singapore, targeting NRI deposits and trade accounts. The move is part of a broad strategy to shore up the overseas business to 15-20% of the bank's total business in five years.

ICICI Bank, which is listed in the New York Stock Exchange, already has a representative office in US but intends to expand its network.

BSE Code: 532174