Prefer private sector banks, says Dhiraj Agarwal

One can prefer private sector banks, says Dhiraj Agarwal, Standard Chartered Securities.

Agarwal told CNBC-TV18, "Relatively speaking private banks should be a safer place within the banking sector. It is a  huge weight in the index, so investors cannot fully ignore it, especially the institutional side and with the Non-Performing  Loan (NPL) pressures showing no signs of abating the banking sector allocation part of the institutional money will  continue to prefer private banks more as compared to the PSU banks, so relative outperformance can continue. We  have seen some correction which should be a good opportunity to enter."
At 10:47 hrs ICICI Bank was quoting at Rs 1,051.95, up Rs 6.60, or 0.63%. It has touched an intraday high of Rs  1,060 and an intraday low of Rs 1,046.
The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 44.73 per share. (Dec, 2012). The stock's price-to-earnings  (P/E) ratio was 23.52. The latest book value of the company is Rs 523.58 per share. At current value, the price-to-book  value of the company was 2.01. The dividend yield of the company was 1.57%.