Banking stocks gain on bond rally, earnings hopes

Reuters Market Eye - Lenders gain for a second consecutive day with the Bank Nifty up 0.6 percent after its 1.8 percent gain on Friday.

A rally in bonds after the RBI fully sold the 200 billion rupees ($3.31 billion) worth of debt on offer on Thursday sparking gains in banks, while hopes of sturdier earnings also help.

Punjab National Bank is up 2.2 percent, Bank of Baroda rises 1.9 percent and State Bank of India is up 1.3 percent.

HDFC Bank gains 0.8 percent ahead of its results on Tuesday, while ICICI Bank and Axis Bank are up marginally ahead of their results later in the week.

 

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi)