BENGALURU (Reuters) – Financial stocks led Indian shares higher on Monday, as the country geared up to further open its economy after a months-long lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The NSE Nifty 50 index .NSEI was up 2.46% at 9,817.45 by 0350 GMT, helped by a broadly stronger mood to Asian markets, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN gained 2.44% to 33,206.18.

The Nifty 50 rose nearly 6% over the previous week led by a rally in beaten-down banking stocks.

The Nifty bank index rose 3.9%, while the financial index .NIFTYFIN gained 3.6%.

India permitted restaurants, malls and religious buildings to reopen from June 8 but extended lockdowns in high-risk zones until June 30 as a record high number of cases were detected nationwide on Saturday.

The reopen plan comes as data on Friday showed the domestic economy grew at 3.1% in the January-March quarter, its slowest pace in at least eight years.

Meanwhile, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 2% as progress on opening up economies helped offset jitters over riots in U.S. cities.