<b>RBI Effect:</b> Sensex up 211pts; Grasim surges 5%

The Sensex rallied to the day's high of 10,435, and is now up 211 points at 10,426.

The BSE Bankex has advanced 4.3% to 4576.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Y V Reddy has hiked the repo and reverse repo rate by 25 basis points. However, the CRR and bank rate remain unchanged.

ICICI Bank has rallied 5.5% to Rs 543, and HDFC Bank has gained 4.5% to Rs 762.

Grasim has surged over 5% to Rs 1,973. Reliance Communications and Cipla have flared up over 3.5% each to Rs 249 and Rs 224, respectively.

ACC, Tata Steel, NTPC, Dr.Reddy's and HLL are up over 3% each at Rs 816, Rs 495, Rs 111, Rs 1,298 and Rs 235, respectively.

Out of 2,417 stocks traded so far, 1,630 have advanced, 715 have declined and the rest are unchanged.