Indian private banking stocks made a strong comeback in 2025. The Nifty Private Bank index ended the year with a gain of 16 per cent, despite a lackluster performance in 2024. This was also the biggest annual rise in the index after 2022.
RBL Bank’s share shone the most among all the shares in the index. There was a continuous rise in it throughout the year and the stock crossed the high level of many years. RBL Bank emerged as the front runner among banking stocks in 2025.
How much did RBL Bank stock rise?
RBL Bank stock closed at Rs 320.80 on Friday, up 1.74%. RBL Bank’s 52 week low is Rs 146.10, which it had made at the beginning of last year. At the same time, it reached its high level i.e. Rs 332 by October 2025. Accordingly, the stock has given a huge return of 127%.
The market of RBL Bank is Rs 19.79 thousand crore. It has given a return of 26.38% in the last 6 months. At the same time, it has increased by about 92% in the last one year.
Investors were hesitant in the beginning of the year
At the beginning of 2025, investors were not completely confident about the stock of RBL Bank. There were doubts about recovery after a long period of weak performance. For this reason many investors kept this stock out of their portfolio.
However, for those investors who stayed in the shares, 2025 proved to be a very profitable year. Due to many positive factors, RBL Bank shares made the biggest annual jump in nine years and increased the wealth of investors tremendously.
Fast pace after initial slowness
RBL Bank’s share price did not show much movement in the beginning of the year and kept trading in a limited range for the first two months. But after this the stock gained momentum and this momentum continued till the end of the year. As a result, the stock gave a multibagger rally of almost 100 percent.
This growth was the biggest annual growth of the bank since its listing in 2016. It also signaled a complete reversal from the massive 43 percent decline in 2024.
Tremendous jump in investors’ wealth
Investors got a big relief from this rally. Those shareholders especially benefited, who held a total of 48.9 percent stake in the company at the end of the September quarter. According to BSE data, this rise significantly strengthened his wealth.
The biggest reason for the rise in the shares of RBL Bank was the better financial performance of the bank in recent quarters. Investor confidence was boosted by improvement in asset quality and stability in results. Apart from this, the announcement of stake purchase by Emirates NBD gave additional support to the stock.
Emirates NBD’s historic deal
Emirates NBD (ENBD) is preparing to acquire controlling stake in RBL Bank through primary capital infusion of about Rs 26,850 crore. This is considered to be the largest ever foreign direct investment in the Indian financial services sector.
This is also the largest equity fund raise in the Indian banking sector and the largest fund raise by a listed company through a preferential issue.
Scheme of preferential issue and open offer
This investment will be made in the form of up to 60 percent stake through preferential issue, which will be subject to regulatory approval and other conditions. Along with this, ENBD will also make a mandatory open offer to buy up to 26 percent stake from public shareholders under the takeover rules of SEBI.
Mutual funds increased confidence
Domestic mutual funds increased their stake in RBL Bank in the September quarter. Their combined stake increased from 29.19 per cent in Q1 FY26 to 30.6 per cent in Q2. LIC also increased its stake to 1.26 percent holding at the end of Q2.
On the other hand, foreign portfolio investors reduced their stake in RBL Bank. According to BSE shareholding data, FPIs’ stake fell to 15.5 per cent in Q2 from 17.6 per cent in Q1 FY26.
RBL Bank target price
ICICI Securities has given a target of ₹ 415 with Buy rating, which shows an increase of about 30 percent from the current level. The brokerage is focused on the Emirates NBD deal, strong capital position and further growth. Motilal Oswal has kept a target of ₹350 with a buy call. This is about 9 percent upside from the current price. Here also the strategic entry of Emirates NBD has been considered a big trigger.
Whereas CLSA has increased the target to ₹ 310 after the ENBD deal, which is around the current share price. This currently indicates consolidation. Overall, from the current level of ₹320, targets from brokerage houses indicate a potential upside of 9 per cent to 30 per cent, which will make further upside dependent on the bank’s fundamentals and deal execution.
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