India shares lower at close of trade; Nifty 50 down 1.68%

© Reuters India shares lower at close of trade; Nifty 50 down 1.68%

Investing.com – India equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Oil & Gas and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 fell 1.68%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index declined 1.84%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Grasim Industries Ltd (NS:GRAS), which rose 1.33% or 17.40 points to trade at 1,326.50 at the close. Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd. (NS:APLH) added 0.83% or 30.45 points to end at 3,700.50 and Asian Paints Ltd. (NS:ASPN) was up 0.82% or 21.95 points to 2,708.75 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (NS:KTKM), which lost 3.94% or 73.40 points to trade at 1,791.80 in late trade. Bajaj Finance Ltd (NS:BJFN) declined 3.92% or 231.05 points to end at 5,667.50 and Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NS:HDFC) shed 3.78% or 85.65 points to 2,179.80.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Asian Paints Ltd. (BO:ASPN) which rose 0.78% to 2,708.75, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (BO:REDY) which was up 0.62% to settle at 4,353.00 and UltraTech Cement Ltd (BO:ULTC) which gained 0.52% to close at 5,510.55.

The worst performers were Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (BO:KTKM) which was down 3.96% to 1,792.10 in late trade, Bajaj Finance Ltd (BO:BJFN) which lost 3.90% to settle at 5,667.85 and Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (BO:HDFC) which was down 3.80% to 2,179.55 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1246 to 579 and 53 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1924 fell and 1272 advanced, while 116 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 2.27% to 19.58.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.42% or 7.70 to $1,845.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.72% or 0.87 to hit $122.38 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.77% or 0.95 to trade at $124.02 a barrel.

USD/INR was up 0.02% to 77.85, while EUR/INR fell 0.10% to 82.49.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 103.46.