mumbai expectations that the reserve bank of india would issue bank licences soon resulted in a sharp spike in the share prices of hopefuls like idfc lt finance and lichf rbi had earlier said that it would announce names by march with only one day before the financial year ends the market expects the announcement to happen around the credit policy on tuesday idfc one of the companies favoured for a bank licence saw its shares rise 5 to rs 121 shares of lt finance holdings jumped 4 to rs 74 while lic housing finance gained 2 to rs 232 earlier this year rbi governor raghuram rajan had indicated that deputy governor anand sinha whose term ended in january would be asked to stay on for three more months by when rbi expected to complete the licencing process at the beginning of this month rajan had said that licences would be issued in weeks and that permission had already been sought from the election commission this week central bank officials said that rbi has already responded to clarifications sought by the ec on thursday rajan told reporters in delhi that the central bank has sought the election commissions clearance over the issue of new bank licence as a matter of caution i think it is to make sure that any such announcements are not tinged by uncertainty thats why it is important to ask the election commission whether this meets with the code of conduct think of it as caution you might call the caution excessive but its important to follow process said rajan who was in the capital for a prepolicy meeting with the finance minister he added that rbi was yet to hear from the commission earlier election commissioner h s brahma had said that the ec would take view on bank licences by march 31 while the market expects rajan to stick to the timeline the feeling is that the central bank would play it safe and issue only a handful of licences as against more than two dozen applications idfc lt finance and lic housing are seen as frontrunners because they do not have private promoters although indiapost was also seen as a strong candidate earlier its chances of getting a licence appear dim considering that it is in deficit and will have to seek funds from the government idfcs share price has risen sharply from its 52week low of 76 in august 28 2013 the company has drawn up a plan to diversify from its core business of infrastructure finance and restructure its operations but is awaiting the bank licence before it implements its plans lt finance is understood to have reached out to banking professionals in expectation of converting into a bank