ING Vysya Bank, in which the Dutch ING Groep NV holds 44 per cent, on Friday welcomed a government decision to allow foreign banks to raise their stakes in Indian private banks to 74 per cent.

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh told parliament in his budget speech for the year to March 2004 that the government planned to raise the ceiling from the current 49 percent.

"I welcome it but I need to look at the details," Bart Hellemans, managing director of Bangalore-based ING Vysya, said.

"It is an opportunity but having done the transactions (in raising the stake to 44 per cent) I know the complexity of doing it."

He said Indian takeover laws and a separate joint venture ING had with the Vysya group were among factors that could influence a decision on any proposal to raise ING's stake in the bank.

ING Vysya's shares jumped as much as 6.9 per cent to 270 rupees on the announcement, before retreating to 265.50 at 1:13 p.m. on the Bombay Stock Exchange, whose main index was up 0.26 per cent.

Reuters