Thursday, May 5 2005 10:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: A steep rally in banking shares today (May 5, 2005) pushed the Sensex sharply up by 75.65 points during the opening session at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Bank shares, especially from the private sector, shot up during the early trading on heavy buying after the Government approval of two bills that would give Reserve Bank of India (RBI) powers to revise SLR and CRR limits of commercial banks, brokers and dealers said.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share sensitive Index opened firm at 6322.02 as against yesterday's (May 4, 2005) close of 6289.55 and soon shot up and was quoted at 6365.20 at 10:30 hrs (IST), showing a steep rally of 75.65 points over the last close.

Among bank shares, SBI, IBG Vysya, Bank of Punjab, Punjab National Bank, Centurion Bank, Federal Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, J & K Bank, Karur Vysa Bank, Indusind Bank, Union Bank, UCO Bank, Dhanalakshmi Bank, HDFC Bank, South Indian Bank, IDBI bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of Rajasthan and UTI Bank rose sharply.

Mirroring the steep rise in bank shares, the BSE-Bankex rallied by 98.35 points at 3687.52 from the last close of 3589.17.

Elsewhere, a large number of index-based shares such as Tata Steel, Maruti, Satyam Comp, Infosystch, RIL, Tata Motors, Grasim, Dr Reddy, BHEL, Wipro, ACC, Hero Honda, Hindalco, HPCL, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, HDFC, ONGC, REL, Wiporo, Zee Tele, Ranbaxy and L&T were also quoted sharply higher on frantic buying.