The much awaited go-ahead from the Election Commission came in for the banking license and RBI is expected to announce the names within a fortnight. Rightly so, this has led to a spike in stock price of all ‘expected’ candidates, led by IDFC, which is said to be amongst the strongest contenders.

The stock is up over 4.2% at Rs.128.30, with an intra day high at Rs.129.90. Its 52-week high stands at Rs.165.45. IFCI is also doing well, up over 3.6% at Rs.27.30.

There are stated to be 25 applicants and it would be interesting to see which win and that too under what categories. Other stocks to watch are Department of Posts, Edelweiss Financial Services , Indiabulls Housing Finance , India Infoline ,  J M Financial , LIC Housing Finance , L & T Finance , Reliance Capital, Religare Enterprises , Shriram Capital, SREI Infrastructure Finance, INMACS Management Services, Janalakshmi Financial Services, Magma Fincorp, Muthoot Finance, Smart Global Ventures, Suryamani Financing Co,  KC Land and Finance, Tourism Finance Corp of India, UAE Exchange of India, L&T Finance and, Aditya Birla Nuvo.

M&M, which through M&M Financial Services was earlier getting all ready to apply for a banking license, decided to opt out even before applying. It had then stated the reason - RBI’s norms were not conducive for large and successful non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to turn into banks. A few months back all were shocked to see Tata Sons also pull out and it had put out a very ‘politically correct’ statement, giving its reason for opting out of the banking license.