Stock market analyst Ashwani Gujral maintained 'Buy' rating on UCO Bank to achieve an intraday target of Rs 48.

According to Mr. Gujral, interested traders can buy the stock with a strict stop loss of Rs 38.

The shares of the company on Monday (July 20) closed at Rs 41.25 as against its last closure of Rs 273.35 on Friday (July 17) on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 9.31 & 4.48 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 48 and a low of Rs 22.10 on BSE.

Mr. Gujral also said that if the stock market remains on the positive track, the stock will hit another target of Rs 55 in today's session.

The Kolkata-based UCO Bank, on July 03, said that it will join hands with domestic as well as foreign entities to float a general insurance company, in which the bank will pick up 30% equity stake.

UCO Bank would invest approximately Rs 45 crore in promoting the planned general insurance company.

The bank would also issue shares worth Rs 136 crore via a follow-on public offer.

Moreover, the bank is eyeing to attain a credit growth rate of 25% in the existing fiscal.

The bank told reporters that the credit growth during the first quarter stood at 5%, but the credit demand is expected to pick up in the coming months.

The bank was progressively diluting its dependency on bulk deposits and the bank's profitability during the first quarter was up by 15% as against to the same period of the last fiscal.

On June 30, UCO Bank is planning to slash depository interest rates by 50-100 basis points in July.

The reduction is necessary because of falling lending rates that was putting forcing the bank`s net interest margin (NIM).

The bank anticipates an NIM of 2.25% in 2009-10. In the present quarter, the NIM is likely to be 1.95% as compared to 1.7% in the quarter ended March 2009 and 1.98% during 2008-09.