<p>The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index, which remained range-bound in early trade, rose by 70.04 points to 18,097.22 at 1200 hrs, soon after the Reserve Bank of India hiked the short-term lending (repo) rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.75 per cent.<br />The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 19.95 points to 5,438.55 at the same time.<br /><br />The upsurge was supported by banking and other financial company stocks such as ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Punjab National Bank.<br /><br />The banking sector index spurted by 0.62 per cent to 11,470.61 at mid-session.</p>
<p>The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index, which remained range-bound in early trade, rose by 70.04 points to 18,097.22 at 1200 hrs, soon after the Reserve Bank of India hiked the short-term lending (repo) rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.75 per cent.<br />The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 19.95 points to 5,438.55 at the same time.<br /><br />The upsurge was supported by banking and other financial company stocks such as ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Punjab National Bank.<br /><br />The banking sector index spurted by 0.62 per cent to 11,470.61 at mid-session.</p>