'The response to the strike call is overwhelming. No one has reported for duty,' said the striking All-India State Bank Officers' Confederation secretary K.F. Mamadapur.

Employees of private banks like Karnataka Bank and ING Vysya Bank are also participating in the strike as their salaries are linked to the wage agreements between state-run banks and IBA.

In the north-east too, banking services remained crippled with more than 30,000 bank employees supporting the protest. 'About 2,700 bank employees in Tripura are taking part in the strike,' said union leader Sushobhan Datta.

The trading volume at Indian equities and bond markets is also expected to be slim Friday as a lot of payments are routed through state-run banks.

'In bond markets, banks are big players and hence volumes will be down. As settlements and clearance process are hampered, equity trading may also get affected,' said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head at SMC Capitals.

It is estimated that an average 3.52 million cheques (valued around Rs.26,767 crore) were cleared every day during May 2009.

Private sector banks are open, but operations which involve transactions with public sector banks are expected to be affected.

--Indo-Asian News service

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