The BSE benchmark Sensex gained nearly 76 points today on fund-based buying in heavyweight stocks, particularly financial companies, after the RBIs quarterly credit policy matched with market expectations.

The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index, which remained range-bound in early trade, rose by 70.04 points to 18,097.22 at 1200 hrs, soon after the Reserve Bank of India hiked the short-term lending (repo) rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.75 per cent.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 19.95 points to 5,438.55 at the same time.

The upsurge was supported by banking and other financial company stocks such as ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Punjab National Bank.

The banking sector index spurted by 0.62 per cent to 11,470.61 at mid-session.