Nifty Bank today, June 9 -- Banking and financial stocks witnessed strong buying interest after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced a concessional swap facility for overseas borrowings with a minimum maturity of three years. The move follows RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra's June 5 announcement easing norms for overseas borrowings by state-run enterprises and is expected to lower hedging costs, making foreign-currency borrowing more attractive for lenders.

The development boosted sentiment across banking and financial counters, helping sectoral indices outperform the broader market.

The Bank Nifty index rose 1.3% to touch an intraday high of 54,799.95. Despite Tuesday's gains, the index remains down 2.5% over the past three months a...