Investing.com – India equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Auto, Metals and Fast Moving Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 lost 0.45%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index declined 0.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Asian Paints Ltd. (NS:ASPN), which rose 3.17% or 91.95 points to trade at 2,996.95 at the close. SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd (NS:SBIL) added 2.11% or 32.10 points to end at 1,556.85 and Divi's Laboratories Ltd. (NS:DIVI) was up 1.80% or 82.15 points to 4,634.10 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (NS:MAHM), which lost 6.72% or 196.50 points to trade at 2,729.00 in late trade. Hindalco Industries Ltd. (NS:HALC) declined 2.11% or 14.95 points to end at 692.05 and Tata Steel Ltd (NS:TISC) shed 2.10% or 3.60 points to 168.20.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Asian Paints Ltd. (BO:ASPN) which rose 3.20% to 2,998.30, NTPC Ltd (BO:NTPC) which was up 1.33% to settle at 382.00 and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which gained 1.29% to close at 345.30.
The worst performers were Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (BO:MAHM) which was down 6.69% to 2,730.00 in late trade, Tata Steel Ltd (BO:TISC) which lost 2.07% to settle at 168.25 and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (BO:TCS) which was down 1.85% to 3,917.90 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1580 to 682 and 18 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2466 fell and 1318 advanced, while 81 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 1.07% to 14.43.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.53% or 12.55 to $2,380.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.11% or 0.09 to hit $81.50 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.01% or 0.01 to trade at $84.65 a barrel.
USD/INR was up 0.02% to 83.51, while EUR/INR rose 0.07% to 90.35.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 104.76.