Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Power, Metals and Fast Moving Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 added 0.82%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index added 0.70%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Grasim Industries Ltd (NS:GRAS), which rose 5.31% or 89.30 points to trade at 1,771.25 at the close. SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd (NS:SBIL) added 4.65% or 51.60 points to end at 1,160.45 and ITC Ltd (NS:ITC) was up 4.34% or 11.15 points to 267.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Cipla Ltd. (NS:CIPL), which lost 2.42% or 25.10 points to trade at 1,011.60 in late trade. Tech Mahindra Ltd (NS:TEML) declined 1.20% or 17.55 points to end at 1,451.00 and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (NS:MRTI) shed 1.08% or 82.55 points to 7,557.95.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which rose 4.36% to 267.80, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (BO:MAHM) which was up 2.70% to settle at 857.10 and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (BO:REDY) which gained 2.67% to close at 4,432.00.
The worst performers were Tech Mahindra Ltd (BO:TEML) which was down 1.31% to 1,449.75 in late trade, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (BO:MRTI) which lost 1.04% to settle at 7,557.70 and NTPC Ltd (BO:NTPC) which was down 0.98% to 152.00 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1266 to 553 and 34 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2208 rose and 1070 declined, while 119 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 6.90% to 17.69 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.23% or 4.40 to $1,933.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.55% or 0.53 to hit $96.56 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.29% or 0.29 to trade at $100.87 a barrel.
USD/INR was down 0.05% to 75.87, while EUR/INR rose 0.04% to 82.59.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 99.78.