India shares higher at close of trade; Nifty 50 up 0.51%

India equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals, IT and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 rose 0.51%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index climbed 0.50%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were JSW Steel Ltd (NS:JSTL), which rose 3.09% or 12.40 points to trade at 414.00 at the close. Eicher Motors Ltd. (NS:EICH) added 3.07% or 79.60 points to end at 2672.30 and Tata Steel Ltd (NS:TISC) was up 2.51% or 17.75 points to 724.50 in late trade.

Biggest losers included SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd (NS:SBIL), which lost 3.15% or 30.55 points to trade at 940.75 in late trade. Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (NS:ONGC) declined 2.01% or 2.35 points to end at 114.40 and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (NS:IOC) shed 1.69% or 1.70 points to 98.85.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Bajaj Finance Ltd (BO:BJFN) which rose 2.22% to 5535.00, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BO:SUN) which was up 2.18% to settle at 625.00 and AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) which gained 2.02% to close at 760.45.

The worst performers were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (BO:ONGC) which was down 2.05% to 114.45 in late trade, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (BO:KTKM) which lost 0.89% to settle at 1961.80 and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (BO:MRTI) which was down 0.61% to 7257.00 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 935 to 719 and 67 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1566 rose and 1316 declined, while 161 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 7.77% to 20.7475 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.40% or 6.85 to $1710.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.28% or 0.18 to hit $64.19 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.12% or 0.08 to trade at $67.60 a barrel.

USD/INR was up 0.23% to 72.933, while EUR/INR rose 0.20% to 86.7460.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 92.082.