India shares higher at close of trade; Nifty 50 up 0.53%

India equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Banking, Real Estate and Power sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 rose 0.53%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index added 0.56%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Shree Cements Ltd. (NS:SHCM), which rose 5.36% or 1445.50 points to trade at 28400.00 at the close. UltraTech Cement Ltd (NS:ULTC) added 2.56% or 172.10 points to end at 6900.10 and Divi’s Laboratories Ltd. (NS:DIVI) was up 2.56% or 87.05 points to 3493.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Hindalco Industries Ltd. (NS:HALC), which lost 2.34% or 7.95 points to trade at 331.80 in late trade. Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (NS:ONGC) declined 2.05% or 2.25 points to end at 107.35 and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:PGRD) shed 2.04% or 4.55 points to 219.00.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were UltraTech Cement Ltd (BO:ULTC) which rose 3.06% to 6934.15, IndusInd Bank Ltd. (BO:INBK) which was up 2.28% to settle at 990.00 and ICICI Bank Ltd (BO:ICBK) which gained 2.25% to close at 586.30.

The worst performers were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (BO:ONGC) which was down 2.28% to 107.15 in late trade, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which lost 1.97% to settle at 219.15 and ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which was down 1.70% to 222.15 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 944 to 694 and 80 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1601 rose and 1259 declined, while 198 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 0.84% to 20.6650.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.02% or 0.40 to $1738.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 4.04% or 2.49 to hit $59.07 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 4.05% or 2.62 to trade at $62.00 a barrel.

USD/INR was up 0.16% to 72.488, while EUR/INR fell 0.24% to 86.1555.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.45% at 92.150.