Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Power, Real Estate and Public Sector Undertakings sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 added 0.79%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index climbed 0.75%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NS:BPCL), which rose 3.73% or 21.15 points to trade at 587.80 at the close. NTPC Ltd (NS:NTPC) added 3.62% or 11.35 points to end at 325.00 and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:PGRD) was up 3.44% or 9.10 points to 273.75 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bharti Airtel Ltd. (NS:BRTI), which lost 0.89% or 11.00 points to trade at 1,220.80 in late trade. HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd (NS:HDFL) declined 0.62% or 3.90 points to end at 622.50 and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (NS:MRTI) shed 0.36% or 43.25 points to 11,897.90.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were NTPC Ltd (BO:NTPC) which rose 3.71% to 325.50, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which was up 3.40% to settle at 273.75 and Tata Steel Ltd (BO:TISC) which gained 3.05% to close at 150.15.
The worst performers were Bharti Airtel Ltd (BO:BRTI) which was down 0.61% to 1,224.45 in late trade, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (BO:MRTI) which lost 0.46% to settle at 11,886.60 and ICICI Bank Ltd (BO:ICBK) which was down 0.24% to 1,082.25 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1729 to 459 and 40 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2639 rose and 1048 declined, while 98 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 7.13% to 12.51 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 2.44% or 52.75 to $2,213.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.18% or 0.15 to hit $81.12 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.14% or 0.12 to trade at $85.83 a barrel.
USD/INR was up 0.03% to 83.11, while EUR/INR unchanged 0.00% to 90.75.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 103.08.