'Speculative at this time': YES Bank on Japan's SMBC talks for stake acquisition; stock erases most gains

Yes Bank Ltd issued its clarification on Tuesday over a news report, titled: "YES Bank shares soar 9% amid Japan's SMBC's talks with SBI for stake acquisition". The private lender mentioned that it is on a growth trajectory and routinely explores opportunities with various stakeholders, which are aimed at enhancing shareholder value.

"However, such discussions are preliminary and do not warrant a disclosure under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, at this stage. The information pertaining to these discussions as set out in the article is speculative at this time and are not factually correct," YES Bank stated.

"We are not aware of any information that has not been announced to the Exchanges, which requires disclosures under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015, at this stage," the bank also said.

"We have been and will keep the Stock Exchanges informed of any material events as required under Regulation 30 of the Listing Regulations," it further stated.

SBI currently owned a 24 per cent stake in the bank, while other domestic entities such as Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) held a combined stake of 11.34 per cent in YES Bank. And, private equity (PE) funds Advent International and Carlyle reportedly held 9.2 per cent and 6.84 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, YES Bank shares zoomed 9.65 per cent to hit a day high of Rs 19.44 in early trade. However, the stock gave up a solid chunk of its gains as the session progressed and was last seen trading 1.35 per cent up at Rs 17.97.

Technically, the scrip traded higher than the 5-day, 20-, 30-day and 50-day simple moving averages (SMAs) but lower than the 10-day, 100-, 150-day and 200-day SMAs. Its 14-day relative strength index (RSI) came at 54.10. A level below 30 is defined as oversold while a value above 70 is considered overbought.

The company's stock has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 26.51 against a price-to-book (P/B) value of 1.22. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at 0.68 with a return on equity (RoE) of 4.57. According to Trendlyne data, YES Bank has a one-year beta of 1.1, indicating high volatility.

It witnessed heavy trading volume today as around 3.07 crore shares changed hands on BSE at the time of writing this story. The figure was higher than the two-week average volume of 91.75 lakh shares. Turnover on the counter came at Rs 57.15 crore, commanding a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 56,378.40 crore.