ALLAHABAD BANK Remains a good banking stock to hold

Why ALLAHABAD BANK Remains a good banking stock to hold?
The ALLAHABAD BANK presented a very good results for the first quarter ended 30th June 2009. For Q1FY10, the bank posted a YoY 28% rise in total income earned at Rs.2377.70 crore. Deposits were at Rs 89,400 crore and advances at Rs 61,000 crore, meaning the total business of the bank has crossed Rs,150,000 crore. Operating profit was at Rs 591 crore almost twice that was posted in Q1FY09. The net profit rose three times at Rs.302.86 crore. This surge is more pronounced as in Q1FY09, the bank had made a huge provisioning of Rs.202.24 crore as against Rs.39.63 crore in current Q1. Its net interest income grew 34.3% to 629 crore. The growth in trading profit was also quite smart – it was up over 5 times at Rs.214 crore.
The bank has recovered Rs 50 crore from defaulters. It upgraded loans to the tune of Rs.97 crore and has written off Rs.50 crore. Gross NPA is at 1.79% as against 1.87% in Q1FY09 and net NPA was at 0.37%, up from 0.72% in Q1FY09.
This is one of the oldest public sector banks of India, established way back in 1865. The Govt of India has a 55.23% stake and institutions hold 26.45% of which LIC has a 11.63%, leaving a floating stock of 18.32%.
The stock touched a high of Rs.90 on 2nd June 2009 in anticipation of the Budget making some favorable recommendations, Since then, it has come down but yet managed to hold strong and is now quoted at Rs.79. Remains a good banking stock to hold. thanks