Investing.com – India equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods, IT and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 lost 0.38%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index lost 0.54%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:PGRD), which rose 4.15% or 7.80 points to trade at 195.80 at the close. GAIL Ltd (NS:GAIL) added 3.56% or 4.60 points to end at 133.90 and Hindalco Industries Ltd. (NS:HALC) was up 3.56% or 8.90 points to 259.20 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ITC Ltd (NS:ITC), which lost 2.91% or 6.15 points to trade at 205.30 in late trade. Reliance Industries Ltd (NS:RELI) declined 2.57% or 50.60 points to end at 1915.50 and AXIS Bank Ltd (NS:AXBK) shed 1.94% or 12.90 points to 651.55.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which rose 4.26% to 196.00, Bharti Airtel Ltd (BO:BRTI) which was up 2.83% to settle at 528.45 and Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (BO:ONGC) which gained 2.21% to close at 97.05.
The worst performers were ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which was down 2.86% to 205.45 in late trade, Reliance Industries Ltd (BO:RELI) which lost 2.64% to settle at 1914.15 and Bajaj Finance Ltd (BO:BJFN) which was down 1.97% to 5020.00 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 941 to 726 and 59 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1514 fell and 1455 advanced, while 123 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 2.61% to 20.9950.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.28% or 5.40 to $1959.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.96% or 0.48 to hit $50.41 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.46% or 0.78 to trade at $54.38 a barrel.
USD/INR was down 0.08% to 73.059, while EUR/INR rose 0.28% to 90.1580.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 89.207.