India shares higher at close of trade; Nifty 50 up 0.31%

India equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.31%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index gained 0.09%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Adani Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd (NS:APSE), which rose 12.57% or 93.30 points to trade at 835.55 at the close. Asian Paints Ltd. (NS:ASPN) added 4.02% or 100.95 points to end at 2611.60 and JSW Steel Ltd (NS:JSTL) was up 3.86% or 19.95 points to 537.45 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:PGRD), which lost 2.31% or 4.95 points to trade at 209.20 in late trade. Grasim Industries Ltd (NS:GRAS) declined 1.34% or 19.40 points to end at 1427.10 and Eicher Motors Ltd. (NS:EICH) shed 1.22% or 30.60 points to 2486.60.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Asian Paints Ltd. (BO:ASPN) which rose 4.07% to 2612.65, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BO:SUN) which was up 1.88% to settle at 620.05 and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (BO:HLL) which gained 1.44% to close at 2407.55.

The worst performers were Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which was down 2.29% to 209.25 in late trade, AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) which lost 1.12% to settle at 677.85 and IndusInd Bank Ltd. (BO:INBK) which was down 1.09% to 927.10 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1006 to 644 and 61 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1604 rose and 1168 declined, while 182 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 1.77% to 20.8400.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.19% or 3.30 to $1732.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.69% or 0.99 to hit $59.64 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.43% or 0.89 to trade at $63.04 a barrel.

USD/INR was up 0.23% to 73.460, while EUR/INR rose 0.21% to 86.7485.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 92.740.