At least 11 bank and institutions' scrips, including State Bank of India (SBI), Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) were traded on or near the eight per cent circuit breaker limit at the Bombay Stock Exchange during Monday's trading.

In fact, barring Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Centurion Bank and HDFC Bank, which touched the day's high marginally below the upper circuit, the other eight scrips hit the circuit breaker in the early part of the day's trading at the bourses. Stock market sources said that the market sentiment was buoyed in favor of bank stocks in anticipation of a positive impact of the interest rate cuts.

In the early morning trading itself, shares of SBI were up Rs 16.05 at Rs 217.15, Bank of Baroda Rs 3.60 at Rs 48.95, Corporation Bank Rs 5.95 at Rs 80.75, ICICI Bank Rs 11.25 at Rs 271.25 and HDFC Bank Rs 30.50 at Rs 411.90.

Monday's trading also saw a handful of private sector bank shares hitting the upper-circuit. Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, Centurion Bank and the Bank of Punjab were all traded at or very near the upper circuit on Monday.All bank and financial institution scrips closed the day weaker than their days' quotes.

However, HDFC scrip bucked this trend and opened the day at the upper circuit at Rs 411.90 and stayed at that value throughout the day. uThe RBI on Saturday cut the cash reserve ratio (CRR) requirement to eight percent from nine percent in two stages of 50 basis points each, effective from April 8 and April 22.

"The reduction in CRR by one per cent will augment lendable resources of the banking system as a whole by about Rs 7200 crore," the apex bank had said. The RBI also announced a reduction in the bank rate, at which the central bank lends to commercial banks and primary dealers, to 7.0 per cent from the current 8.0 per cent with effect from April 1. The rate on savings deposits with banks, which is determined by the RBI, has been lowered to four per cent from 4.5 per cent.