Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Banking sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.58%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index added 0.59%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (NS:HPCL), which rose 3.26% or 13.80 points to trade at 437.25 at the close. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (NS:REDY) added 2.35% or 53.05 points to end at 2310.65 and Cipla Ltd. (NS:CIPL) was up 2.40% or 13.85 points to 590.45 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (NS:TCS), which lost 2.67% or 70.20 points to trade at 2557.80 in late trade. GAIL Ltd (NS:GAIL) declined 0.77% or 3.80 points to end at 487.10 and UPL Ltd (NS:UPLL) shed 0.82% or 5.95 points to 719.60.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (BO:REDY) which rose 2.34% to 2313.70, Cipla Ltd. (BO:CIPL) which was up 2.22% to settle at 591.00 and ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which gained 1.87% to close at 263.90.
The worst performers were Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (BO:TCS) which was down 2.62% to 2558.55 in late trade, Gail (India) Ltd. (BO:GAIL) which lost 0.93% to settle at 486.95 and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BO:SUN) which was down 0.48% to 514.30 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1010 to 563 and 32 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1506 fell and 1056 advanced, while 164 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 2.90% to 16.4075 a new 6-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.76% or 9.50 to $1258.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $56.61 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.26% or 0.16 to trade at $62.60 a barrel.
USD/INR was up 0.00% to 64.332, while EUR/INR fell 0.28% to 76.0190.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 93.50.