India shares higher at close of trade; Nifty 50 up 0.14%

India equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Power, Auto and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.14% to hit a new 1-month high, while the BSE Sensex 30 index climbed 0.14%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NS:BPCL), which rose 3.70% or 14.35 points to trade at 402.35 at the close. Cipla Ltd. (NS:CIPL) added 1.57% or 19.65 points to end at 1,272.90 and Bajaj Auto Ltd (NS:BAJA) was up 1.30% or 73.75 points to 5,759.70 in late trade.

Biggest losers included IndusInd Bank Ltd. (NS:INBK), which lost 2.10% or 31.60 points to trade at 1,470.45 in late trade. Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (NS:KTKM) declined 1.26% or 22.30 points to end at 1,744.90 and Hindalco Industries Ltd. (NS:HALC) shed 1.22% or 6.20 points to 500.65.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Infosys Ltd (BO:INFY) which rose 1.27% to 1,457.70, NTPC Ltd (BO:NTPC) which was up 1.14% to settle at 252.70 and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which gained 1.10% to close at 211.20.

The worst performers were IndusInd Bank Ltd. (BO:INBK) which was down 2.07% to 1,471.00 in late trade, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (BO:KTKM) which lost 1.16% to settle at 1,746.50 and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (BO:MAHM) which was down 1.07% to 1,543.30 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1254 to 833 and 47 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2003 fell and 1558 advanced, while 137 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 3.00% to 11.86.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.04% or 0.90 to $2,002.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.89% or 0.69 to hit $77.08 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.80% or 0.66 to trade at $81.79 a barrel.

USD/INR was down 0.03% to 83.32, while EUR/INR fell 0.11% to 90.81.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 103.65.

India shares higher at close of trade; Nifty 50 up 0.14%