Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Healthcare and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 rose 0.32%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index added 0.38%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Cairn India Limited (NS:CAIL), which rose 4.52% or 6.35 points to trade at 146.95 at the close. Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (NS:APSE) added 2.10% or 4.75 points to end at 231.20 and Lupin Ltd (NS:LUPN) was up 1.93% or 35.20 points to 1856.15 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Idea Cellular Ltd (NS:IDEA), which lost 2.34% or 2.45 points to trade at 102.20 in late trade. Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (NS:KTKM) declined 1.83% or 11.95 points to end at 642.65 and Tech Mahindra Limited (NS:TEML) shed 1.74% or 8.10 points to 458.05.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (BO:HLL) which rose 1.88% to 853.30, Tata Motors Ltd. (BO:TAMO) which was up 1.61% to settle at 354.00 and ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which gained 1.60% to close at 321.10.
The worst performers were Coal India Limited (BO:COAL) which was down 0.98% to 319.05 in late trade, Vedanta Ltd (BO:VDAN) which lost 0.96% to settle at 87.35 and ICICI Bank Ltd. (BO:ICBK) which was down 0.77% to 213.80 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 849 to 567 and 54 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 492 fell and 314 advanced, while 29 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India Vix, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 4.46% to 17.0975 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.60% or 7.60 to $1265.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 2.56% or 0.97 to hit $38.81 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 2.02% or 0.81 to trade at $40.86 a barrel.
USD/INR was down 0.41% to 67.135, while EUR/INR fell 0.97% to 74.5000.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.44% at 96.61.