Sensex croses 11,000 mark in pre-close trade

Updated at 30. 10 pm

MUMBAI: The benchmark Sensex climbed to the 11,000 mark in the pre-closing session on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday on aggressive buying by funds in blue-chip stocks, led by the banking segment.

The Sensex rose by 216.38 at 11,028.02 at 3 pm, 30 minutes before the session closed for the day. The National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 64.65 points at 3216.75.

The major support came in from pivotals like Larsen and Toubro, Maruti, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy, Wipro and Satyam Computers.

Shares of State Bank of India and other government-run lenders rose after they won approval to increase lending rates, allaying investor concerns that their earnings may be eroded by narrowing interest margins.

Market players said the lending rate hikes would protect banks' interest margins and help them counter a rise in their cost of funding. They said the Bank index conmprising of 18 banking shares advanced 122.93 points, or 2.5 per cent, to 4,980.62 at 1pm.