Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Metals and Public Sector Undertakings sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.72%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index gained 0.61%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NS:BPCL), which rose 9.81% or 49.90 points to trade at 558.35 at the close. Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:PGRD) added 4.25% or 11.30 points to end at 277.10 and Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (NS:ONGC) was up 3.88% or 9.60 points to 257.25 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Eicher Motors Ltd. (NS:EICH), which lost 2.74% or 107.65 points to trade at 3,825.55 in late trade. Axis Bank Ltd (NS:AXBK) declined 1.59% or 17.20 points to end at 1,067.05 and HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd (NS:HDFL) shed 1.40% or 8.20 points to 578.90.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which rose 4.10% to 276.70, NTPC Ltd (BO:NTPC) which was up 3.28% to settle at 332.30 and Tata Steel Ltd (BO:TISC) which gained 2.89% to close at 138.70.
The worst performers were Axis Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) which was down 1.42% to 1,068.75 in late trade, HDFC Bank Ltd (BO:HDBK) which lost 1.33% to settle at 1,446.85 and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (BO:HLL) which was down 0.81% to 2,454.05 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1091 to 1050 and 43 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1931 rose and 1776 declined, while 92 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 1.68% to 14.70.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.08% or 1.65 to $2,072.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.85% or 0.63 to hit $74.45 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.81% or 0.64 to trade at $79.34 a barrel.
USD/INR was down 0.06% to 82.91, while EUR/INR rose 0.11% to 90.28.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 102.79.