India shares higher at close of trade; Nifty 50 up 0.97%

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

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.97% to hit a new all time high, while the BSE Sensex 30 index added 0.92%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were IndusInd Bank Ltd. (NS:INBK), which rose 7.29% or 71.15 points to trade at 1046.80 at the close. Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:PGRD) added 5.97% or 11.60 points to end at 205.80 and Divi’s Laboratories Ltd. (NS:DIVI) was up 4.66% or 165.40 points to 3714.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Shree Cements Ltd. (NS:SHCM), which lost 1.64% or 432.55 points to trade at 26000.00 in late trade. UPL Ltd (NS:UPLL) declined 1.51% or 8.55 points to end at 557.75 and UltraTech Cement Ltd (NS:ULTC) shed 0.99% or 60.40 points to 6063.15.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were IndusInd Bank Ltd. (BO:INBK) which rose 7.65% to 1049.55, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which was up 6.08% to settle at 206.00 and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (BO:REDY) which gained 3.92% to close at 4660.00.

The worst performers were Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (BO:MRTI) which was down 0.87% to 7589.00 in late trade, UltraTech Cement Ltd (BO:ULTC) which lost 0.85% to settle at 6075.00 and ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which was down 0.66% to 216.75 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1036 to 601 and 67 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1718 rose and 1161 declined, while 146 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 1.71% to 23.7450.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.20% or 3.70 to $1837.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.66% or 0.36 to hit $55.12 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.26% or 0.15 to trade at $57.95 a barrel.

USD/INR was up 0.09% to 72.966, while EUR/INR fell 0.09% to 87.7020.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 91.198.