10:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai - Sensex rise for a fifth consecutive trading session and banks rose despite a rise in cash reserve ratio in two stages.

Market Sentiment

Indian shares rallied on Monday, extending gains recorded during the previous four trading sessions last week.

The stocks also braved a steep 50 basis points rise in cash reserve ratio announced by the Reserve Bank of India late on Thursday last week.

In Mumbai trading, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose 1.6% or 258.13 at 16,739.33 with 20 stocks in the index recording gains while 10 stocks declined.

Of the BSE traded shares, 2,038 shares advanced, 677 shares declined while 56 shares remained unchanged.

On the National Stock Exchange Nifty advanced 1.6% or 78.60. At close the 50-share index stood at 5053.40 levels.

Metal shares staged a strong comeback, reversing earlier losses while banking shares recorded gains despite the increase in cash reserve for banks. Technology shares, which rallied last week, fell on selling pressure.

Oil rally continues

Crude oil prices surged above $117, setting a new record high on Monday because of worries of supply disruptions from major producers and comments by OPEC reiterating there is no need to raise output.

Turnover

Daily turnover on the BSE stood at 5,496 crore rupees and 13,226 crore rupees on the National Stock Exchange.

Debutant Titagarh Wagons was the most active stock on the BSE with a turnover of 366.69 rupees followed by Orchid Chemicals, Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Reliance Capital.

Gainers and Decliners

Of the BSE shares, Tata Steel with a rise of 8.7% to 777.55 rupees led the advancers in the Sensex index. Infosys Technologies declined 1.3% to 1,645 rupees and led the decliners in the index.

Hindalco Industries gained 3% to 191.85 rupees, National Aluminium rose 3.1% to rupees and Steel Authority of India surged 4.3% to 178.40 rupees.

TCS lost 1% to 991.05 rupees.

ICICI Bank rose 4.2% to rupees, State Bank of India increased 3.7% to 1,745.30 rupees and HDFC Bank rose 3.6% to 1,447 rupees.

Banks face higher cash reserve ratio

The unscheduled CRR rate hike comes ahead of RBI''s annual credit policy for fiscal 2009 to be released on next week.