Investing.com – India equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Metals, Healthcare and Auto sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 declined 0.20%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index fell 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NS:BPCL), which rose 3.83% or 12.10 points to trade at 327.85 at the close. NTPC Ltd (NS:NTPC) added 3.05% or 4.00 points to end at 136.25 and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:PGRD) was up 2.77% or 4.85 points to 181.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Lupin Ltd (NS:LUPN), which lost 4.47% or 36.20 points to trade at 774.75 in late trade. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NS:SUN) declined 4.06% or 17.90 points to end at 422.90 and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (NS:REDY) shed 4.17% or 111.30 points to 2563.35.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were NTPC Ltd (BO:NTPC) which rose 4.13% to 136.20, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which was up 3.12% to settle at 180.30 and Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (BO:ONGC) which gained 2.27% to close at 135.10.
The worst performers were Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BO:SUN) which was down 3.94% to 423.30 in late trade, Tata Steel Ltd (BO:TISC) which lost 3.12% to settle at 467.45 and Vedanta Ltd (BO:VDAN) which was down 2.87% to 147.45 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1045 to 533 and 57 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1549 fell and 887 advanced, while 130 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 4.36% to 16.4600.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.48% or 6.25 to $1320.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.13% or 0.07 to hit $54.48 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.17% or 0.11 to trade at $64.68 a barrel.
USD/INR was up 0.28% to 71.216, while EUR/INR rose 0.16% to 80.3310.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 96.930.