Share prices of a number of banks surged on Monday, with investors hoping for Essar to deleverage its near Rs 90,000 crore debt following Essar Oil's deal with Russian firm Rosneft. Banks with exposure to Essar include ICICI Bank, whose shares rose 5.74% to Rs 255.75, State Bank of India (up 1.3% to Rs 256) and Axis Bank (up 1.8% to Rs 233), according to Mint.

A research analyst at Choice Broking, Satish Kumar, said these companies had given out large loans to the Essar Group, and that its weak financial state had "raised concerns over asset quality". He added, "The latest asset monetisation by the group...will help it reduce long-term debt that is likely to ease the asset quality pressure."

Essar Group CEO Prashant Ruia told The Economic Times that the deal with the Rosneft-led group was "one of the largest deleveraging in the history of Indian companies". On Saturday, October 15, Essar Oil finalised the near $12-billion (around Rs 80,000 crore) deal with Russian firm PJSC Rosneft Oil Co, Trafigura Group and United Capital Partners to sell 98% stake in its Vadinar refinery and Vadinar Port in Gujarat. More than Rs 30,000 crore of the total will be used to repay the company's debts.