Mumbai: Both the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex and CNX Nifty continued to rally for the second consecutive session on Friday led by gains in IT stocks after global rival Accenture Plc raised its revenue forecast, while Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) rose on bets it will roll out its telecom services in the next few months.

The 30-share Sensex closed 0.9%, or 245.27 points, higher at 27,371.84, while the National Stock Exchange’s broader barometer 50-share Nifty rose 0.81%, or 65.90 points, to end at 8,225.20 points.

Markets opened higher, amid firm global cues, with bank and IT shares leading the gains in early trades.

At 9:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 269 points at 27,395 and the 50-share Nifty was up 77 points at 8,236.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed penalties on ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda (BoB) for violating Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering norms.

ICICI Bank has been slapped with a fine of Rs 50 lakh, while BoB has been levied a fine of Rs 25 lakh.

India's equity mutual fund managers have kept their top-10 picks almost intact through 2014, barring three stocks. Despite being giants in their respective sectors, the three failed to make it to the most-invested stocks this year, said Value Research.

The three are telecom giant Bharti Airtel, fast-moving consumer goods major ITC and Housing Development Finance Corporation.

Benchmark share indices extended losses tracking weak global markets as crude prices continue to fall further. Further, selling by foreign funds in the previous sessions continue to weigh on investor sentiment.

By 9:40AM, the Sensex was lower by 254 points at 27,065 mark and the Nifty slipped by 75 points at 8,148 levels.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank has said a merger with parent Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) makes sense in the long term. There is no proposal on the table and regulatory clarity is required to make such a deal more beneficial.

A possible merger between HDFC Bank and the housing finance giant has been talked about for a long time. Such a transaction can create the country’s second largest financial sector institution, after State Bank of India.

Markets opened marginally higher tracking gains in their Asian peers and overnight gains on Wall Street with IT majors leading the gains.

Meanwhile, markets are likely to remain volatile ahead of the release of consumer price inflation and industrial production data due later today.

Fixed interest rate home loans have staged a comeback in the market, with Axis Bank — the third largest private sector lender in the country — being the latest to roll out one such product. The bank has introduced a fixed home loan product for the tenure of 20 years, priced at 10.4 per cent.

However, this Lifetime Fixed interest home loan is available only for loans up to Rs 50 lakh for property up to Rs 65 lakh in metros and for borrowing up to Rs 40 lakh for property of Rs 50 lakh in other locations.

When most private sector banks have seen the share of low-cost current account and savings account (Casa) deposits grow in their deposits pool, HDFC Bank, the country’s second largest private sector lender, has witnessed a fall in the share of Casa in the same period.

At the end of March 2013, Casa ratio in total deposits was at 47.4 per cent, which in the next six months slipped to 45 per cent (September 2013). At the end of March 2014, the ratio declined marginally to 44.8 per cent. It dipped to 43.2 per cent in quarter ended September 2014.

Markets are likely to open lower tracking losses in their Asian peers and sharp overnight decline on Wall Street.

At 8:20AM, the early indicator SGX Nifty was down 30 points at 8,452.

Markets are also likely to react to the current account data (CAD) which at 2.1% of the GDP for the July-September quarter is higher compared to same quarter last fiscal when the figure was 1.2%.

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