Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Public Sector Undertakings and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.21%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index added 0.15%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Cipla Ltd. (NS:CIPL), which rose 5.76% or 56.90 points to trade at 1,043.95 at the close. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NS:SUN) added 3.73% or 32.45 points to end at 902.00 and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NS:BPCL) was up 3.72% or 13.00 points to 362.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nestle India Ltd (NS:NEST), which lost 1.82% or 321.65 points to trade at 17,327.45 in late trade. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (NS:MRTI) declined 1.51% or 109.25 points to end at 7,102.55 and Tata Consumer Products Ltd (NS:TACN) shed 1.07% or 7.75 points to 716.45.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BO:SUN) which rose 3.82% to 902.15, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (BO:REDY) which was up 2.07% to settle at 3,974.85 and ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which gained 1.81% to close at 236.20.
The worst performers were Nestle India Ltd (BO:NEST) which was down 1.56% to 17,358.10 in late trade, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (BO:MRTI) which lost 1.38% to settle at 7,106.65 and NTPC Ltd (BO:NTPC) which was down 0.75% to 131.90 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1113 to 695 and 33 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2008 rose and 1232 declined, while 114 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 0.93% to 25.34.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.16% or 3.20 to $1,997.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 3.45% or 3.66 to hit $109.68 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 3.20% or 3.50 to trade at $112.83 a barrel.
USD/INR was up 0.28% to 76.57, while EUR/INR rose 0.36% to 84.09.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 98.63.