YES Bank shares down 20% in a month; should you still 'Hold' it?

YES Bank Ltd shares returned to the negative territory in Friday's trade after recording an 11.50 per cent rise during the previous session. The stock was last seen trading 1.88 per cent lower at Rs 22.99. At this price, the scrip has slipped 20.75 per cent in the past one month. Despite the mentioned fall, it has ascended by 49.58 per cent in a year.

The lender recently said it has received approval from payments authority NPCI for enabling transition of UPI consumer application services and collection for offline merchant acquiring, which were earlier managed by Paytm Payments Bank Ltd.

In a separate development, YES Bank has issued a clarification over a report, titled "Yes Bank gains on reports of lender seeking new promoter, $9 billion valuation" and termed it as speculative. "In this regard, the bank would like to clarify that the contents of the said article are speculative in nature and YES Bank does not feel that it is appropriate to comment on market speculations," it stated.

On technical setup, analysts largely said that support on the counter could be seen around Rs 19 and immediate resistance is likely to be found at Rs 24.50. And, a decisive breach above the said resistance level may trigger more upside.

One of them also suggested that traders can continue to 'Hold' the stock as the private lender has maintained a double-digit growth in both advances and deposits. YES Bank has also brought down its bad loans substantially, he further mentioned.

"The stock looked good to 'Hold' as it trades at a 1.7 per cent price to adjusted book value. The private lender maintains double-digit growth in both advances and deposits. It has also brought down net NPA (non-performing asset) substantially below 1 per cent," said G Chokkalingam, founder and MD of Equinomics Research.

"Support for the stock lies near the Rs 19.50 zone, which is anticipated to provide a cushion. On the higher end, a decisive surge beyond Rs 25-26 levels could only bring some mojo back in the counter," said Osho Krishan, Senior Research Analyst - Technical & Derivatives at Angel One.

"YES Bank shares are likely to slip towards Rs 19 level in the near term," said DRS Finvest founder Ravi Singh. Immediate resistance will be at Rs 24.50, he added.