Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Public Sector Undertakings and Consumer Durables sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 rose 0.22% to hit a new 1-month high, while the BSE Sensex 30 index climbed 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were GAIL Ltd (NS:GAIL), which rose 5.79% or 25.45 points to trade at 464.95 at the close. Idea Cellular Ltd (NS:IDEA) added 2.89% or 1.95 points to end at 69.40 and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NS:BPCL) was up 2.83% or 18.55 points to 674.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included AXIS Bank Ltd. (NS:AXBK), which lost 1.60% or 7.80 points to trade at 480.70 in late trade. Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. (NS:ARBN) declined 1.50% or 10.90 points to end at 714.00 and Lupin Ltd (NS:LUPN) shed 1.45% or 21.75 points to 1475.15.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Gail (India) Ltd. (BO:GAIL) which rose 5.31% to 462.70, POWER GRID CORPORATION OF INDIA (BO:PGRD) which was up 1.79% to settle at 202.00 and Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (BO:ONGC) which gained 1.62% to close at 201.05.
The worst performers were Lupin Ltd (BO:LUPN) which was down 1.28% to 1478.60 in late trade, AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) which lost 0.95% to settle at 483.70 and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BO:SUN) which was down 0.87% to 644.20 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 762 to 724 and 74 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1416 rose and 1259 declined, while 188 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India Vix, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 1.07% to 15.0200.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.81% or 9.85 to $1202.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.57% or 0.29 to hit $51.37 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.61% or 0.33 to trade at $54.25 a barrel.
USD/INR was down 0.21% to 68.172, while EUR/INR rose 0.22% to 72.6630.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.19% at 101.12.