Sensex, Nifty up over 1%; Bank Nifty tops 19,000

Benchmark indices were trading over 1% higher on renewed buying interest in bank shares ahead of the two-day bankers' retreat in Pune where consolidation among the state-owned banks is to be discussed among other financial matters.

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 330 points a 27,838 and the 50-share Nifty was up 95 points at 8,379.

The government on Thursday raised the excise duties on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 a litre to fund an “ambitious infrastructure development programme” this and the next financial year, including 15,000 km of road construction.

'Gyan Sangam,'a two-day conclave of bankers and insurers starts from today at Pune. The retreat will be attended by the Prime Minister and RBI Governor along with the chiefs of financial institutions to discuss issues like financial inclusion, direct benefits transfer and consolidation in public sector banks.

For the month of December 2014 India’s HSBC Manufacturing PMI compiled by Markit Economics will be released on today along with the HSBC PMI of Eurozone, US and France.

The Indian rupee was trading unchanged at Rs 63.35 to the US dollar.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 18.20 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

All sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in the green led by Bankex which was up 1.4% followed by Power, Metal, Capital Goods, and Consumer Goods indices among others.

The Bank Nifty hit a fresh record high of 19,042.70. ICICI Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank, SBI and Axis Bank were up 1-2% each. PSU banks such as SBI, PNB, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India were up 0.7-1% each.

Among other shares, road construction firms were up 1-8% as the government plans to allocate proceeds from the recent excise duty hike for road construction. Ashoka Buildcon, IRB Infrastructure, Sadbhav Engineering and IL&FS Transportation Networks were up 1-8% each.

SJVN has gained around 3% to Rs 25.40 in BSE after inking Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Salts Limited and Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited for construction of renewable energy projects in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.9% each.

Market breadth was positive with 1,552 gainers and 544 losers on the BSE.