The Nifty is now a full percentage point up, and is away a mere 10 points from a new record high of 8,500. Will the level be taken out with the one hour of trading left to go? 2:00 pm: Shares extended their gains Friday, with banks powering part of the rally, as the Nifty mounted a bid to scale the uncharted 8,500 level. At the time of writing, the Sensex was up 240 points (0.83 percent) to 28,301 while the Nifty was up 75 points (0.85 percent) to 8,477. The rally in banks, which were on average 2.5 percent higher, was triggered by the mega merger deal yesterday between Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank. Kotak hit a lifetime high early, before retreating marginally to trade 5.25 percent higher to Rs 1217. ICICI Bank too was trading at a record high. IT shares, however, traded lower with Infosys leading the losses with a 2 percent decline. The IT outsourcer was recently hit by an overbilling scandal in which a top executive from its BPO unit was found involved. Power shares climbed marginally – Power Grid was up 0.4 percent while NTPC gained 0.6 percent – after the government announced a Rs 33,000 crore infusion into a scheme aimed at splitting electricity feeders for agriculture and to strengthen transmission and distribution in the country. Sugar stocks were lower with Balrampur Chini losing 3.75 percent.