Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Power, Oil & Gas and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 added 0.08%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index added 0.14%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NS:BPCL), which rose 6.24% or 20.60 points to trade at 350.90 at the close. Nestle India Ltd (NS:NEST) added 2.54% or 457.30 points to end at 18,450.65 and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (NS:HLL) was up 2.45% or 58.90 points to 2,465.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hindalco Industries Ltd. (NS:HALC), which lost 5.22% or 21.20 points to trade at 384.95 in late trade. Tata Steel Ltd (NS:TISC) declined 3.31% or 3.60 points to end at 105.05 and JSW Steel Ltd (NS:JSTL) shed 2.54% or 17.25 points to 662.40.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Nestle India Ltd (BO:NEST) which rose 2.54% to 18,460.00, Asian Paints Ltd. (BO:ASPN) which was up 2.32% to settle at 2,894.95 and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (BO:HLL) which gained 2.23% to close at 2,459.85.
The worst performers were Tata Steel Ltd (BO:TISC) which was down 3.31% to 105.05 in late trade, IndusInd Bank Ltd. (BO:INBK) which lost 2.31% to settle at 1,020.15 and Bharti Airtel Ltd (BO:BRTI) which was down 0.98% to 749.00 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1226 to 691 and 63 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2085 fell and 1321 advanced, while 112 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 0.48% to 16.22.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.38% or 7.35 to $1,923.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.83% or 0.56 to hit $68.17 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.91% or 0.67 to trade at $74.36 a barrel.
USD/INR was up 0.03% to 82.75, while EUR/INR rose 0.14% to 87.77.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 104.19.