Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Power and Auto sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.40%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index gained 0.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were GAIL Ltd (NS:GAIL), which rose 3.68% or 12.60 points to trade at 356.75 at the close. ITC Ltd (NS:ITC) added 3.71% or 11.00 points to end at 305.75 and Lupin Ltd (NS:LUPN) was up 3.10% or 25.10 points to 832.75 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (NS:INBF), which lost 2.13% or 18.00 points to trade at 830.10 in late trade. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (NS:IOC) declined 1.52% or 2.40 points to end at 155.35 and Bajaj Finance Ltd (NS:BJFN) shed 1.18% or 35.85 points to 3008.80.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which rose 3.14% to 305.60, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (BO:MRTI) which was up 2.13% to settle at 7332.15 and AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) which gained 1.61% to close at 764.15.
The worst performers were Bharti Airtel Ltd (BO:BRTI) which was down 1.71% to 341.55 in late trade, Bajaj Finance Ltd (BO:BJFN) which lost 1.37% to settle at 3007.10 and Larsen & Toubro Ltd (BO:LART) which was down 1.22% to 1361.05 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 875 to 699 and 74 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1327 rose and 1123 declined, while 152 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 0.19% to 20.9975.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.31% or 4.05 to $1297.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.53% or 0.97 to hit $64.55 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.21% or 0.86 to trade at $71.69 a barrel.
USD/INR was up 0.20% to 69.220, while EUR/INR rose 0.85% to 78.2930.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.31% at 96.510.