Mumbai, Dec 13 (IANS): The key Indian equity indices traded higher on Thursday with the Sensex gaining over 300 points and Nifty50 trading over the 10,800 points mark.

The market was supported by healthy buying in banking stocks. Sentiments were upbeat as the newly appointed Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das held a meeting with heads of Mumbai-based public sector banks.

The Nifty PSU Bank index gained 1.66 per cent. Banking stocks also rose as RBI is scheduled to purchase government securities and infuse liquidity worth Rs 10,000 crore on Thursday.

All the sectoral indices on BSE and NSE were in the green.

"With inflation cooling off, it will give way to interest rate cut. We expect an interest rate cut which will lead to higher lending," said Astha Jain, Senior Analyst, Hem Securities.

At 1.48 p.m., the Sensex traded 298.76 points higher at 36,077.83 points, touching an intra-day high of 36,095.56 and a low of 35,892.51 so far. The Nifty50 traded 96.95 points higher at 10,834.55 points, from the previous close.

Auto stocks were most favoured on the BSE as Tata Motors(DVR), Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki gained over 2 per cent. State Bank of India and IndusInd Bank were among the top gainers.

In contrast, of the 30 stocks on BSE, only 6 traded lower, led by Sun Pharma and TCS, both declining by over 1 per cent.