Bank stocks light up D-Street; surge up to 46%

Bank stocks were on fire today, surging up to 46 per cent, after the government unveiled an unprecedented Rs 2.11 lakh crore two-year road map for strengthening NPA-hit public sector lenders.

Shares of Punjab National Bank (PNB) skyrocketed 46.20 per cent, Bank of India jumped 33.96 per cent, Bank of Baroda soared 31.47 per cent and State Bank of India zoomed 27.58 per cent on BSE.

Among others, Indian Bank surged 21.48 per cent, Andhra Bank climbed 18.97 per cent, Syndicate Bank jumped 17.37 per cent and Bank of Maharashtra gained 16.01 per cent.

Private lenders such as ICICI Bank rose sharply by 14.69 per cent and AXIS Bank gained 4.61 per cent.
 

Led by the gains in these stocks, the BSE bank index rose by 4.71 per cent to end at 28,329.12.

SBI's market valuation soared Rs 60,597.68 crore to Rs 2,80,282.68 crore, PNB added Rs 12,789.68 crore to Rs 42,963.68 crore and Bank of Baroda saw its market cap rising by Rs 10,380.28 crore to Rs 43,364.28 crore.

The smart surge in bank stocks was instrumental in sending the BSE 30-share index higher by 435.16 points or 1.33 per cent at 33,042.50.

"This certainly has to be one of the historical days of Indian markets and undoubtedly, PSU Banks (PSBs) were the 'Charioteer' of this memorable day. This is probably the perfect example how things can turn overnight as we saw recent laggards (PSBs) turning into a gold by clocking colossal surge in a single day," said Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking.

It was clearly an one sided affair as we saw entire PSU banking basket along with couple of other heavyweights propelled todays move, Chavan added.

"Government's recapitalisation plan sparked astonishingly steep gains in PSBs," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

The government yesterday unveiled an unprecedented Rs 2.11 lakh crore two-year road map for strengthening NPA-hit public sector banks, which includes re-capitalisation bonds, budgetary support, and equity dilution.

The capital infusion, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, will be accompanied by reforms to enable the state-owned banks play major role in the financial system and give a strong push to the job-creating MSME sector.