Centurion Bank of Punjab soars on buzz of merger with HDFC Bank

Centurion Bank of Punjab soars on buzz of merger with HDFC Bank

Centurion Bank of Punjab surged 12.94% to Rs 56.30 at 14:23 IST on BSE on reports HDFC Bank is in advanced merger talks with the bank..

Shares of HDFC Bank fell 1.92% to Rs 1,505.10.

Meanwhile, BSE Sensex was down 106.22 points or 0.57% to 17,516.92.

Volumes in the counter were high. On BSE, 1.22 crore shares were traded in the Centurion Bank of Punjab counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 67.56 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 58.40 and low of Rs 50.10 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 75.25 on 7 January 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 30 on 5 March 2007.

Centurion Bank of Punjab, India's 12th largest private sector bank in terms of operating income had outperformed the market over the past one month till 20 February 2008, declining 5.23% compared to the Sensex’s return of 5.31%. It also outperformed the market in the past one quarter, rising 15.53% compared to Sensex’s decline of 4.91%.

The bank's current equity is Rs 187.30 crore. Face value per share is Rs 1.

The current price of Rs 56.30 discounts its Q3 December 2007 annualized EPS of Rs 1.03, by a PE multiple of 54.66.

There is an even chance that the HDFC Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab (CboP) merger deal will go through, reports added.

Centurion Bank of Punjab’s principal activities are to provide banking and other financial services to corporate and private customers. It provides personal banking, cash management, retail loans and other financial services.

CboP's net profit rose 44% to Rs 48.27 crore on 71.8% rise in operating income to Rs 730.67 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006.