Mumbai, Oct 25 (IANS): Scrip of public sector banks (PSBs) rose exponentially on Wednesday, a day after the government announced a massive recapitilsation scheme.

Market observers pointed out that almost all the major PSBs like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda rose in the band of 20-40 per cent.

The S&P BSE bank -- BANKEX -- rose exponentially by 1,274.17 points or 4.71 per cent at 3.30 p.m.

"Today's up move in the key indices was based on yesterday evening's announcement on PSU bank recapitalisation. The large PSU bank stocks were expected to rise from 20-40 per cent depending on the individual bank's capital adequacy and NPA levels and most of those stocks have risen in this band only," Deepak Jasani, Head - Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

"Even the maximum (trade) volume during the day so far (3.00 p.m.) of about Rs 49,000 crore on the NSE has been concentrated towards the banking counters and especially the large PSU bank counters."

Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS: "Almost all PSBs' stocks like those of SBI, BoB and PNB rose to touch their new 52-week highs during the intra-day trade."

"The rise in PSB stocks not only lifted the sectoral index but also the benchmark indices -- BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty -- to touch their all time highs during the intra-day trade."