Sensex gains more than 300 points as Rajan sparks reform hopes

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex rose more than 300 points and the Nifty gained over 100 points on Thursday after new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief Raghuram Rajan's comments on potential measures on Wednesday sparked hopes of more reforms aiding the economy and the currency.

Blue-chip shares, especially banks, jumped with NSE bank index surging 7.78 percent (at 1424 IST) after the new RBI governor announced a slew of measures to ease liquidity pressures on banks.

ICICI bank Ltd rose nearly 9 percent while Axis Bank Ltd gained about 14 percent.

The broader Nifty was up 2.16 percent while the benchmark BSE Sensex was up 1.72 percent at 1425 IST.

 

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)