India shares higher at close of trade; Nifty 50 up 1.09%

India equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Banking, Oil & Gas and Metals sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 1.09%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index climbed 1.14%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Tata Motors Ltd (NS:TAMO), which rose 3.90% or 6.60 points to trade at 175.80 at the close. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NS:SUN) added 3.18% or 18.30 points to end at 592.90 and AXIS Bank Ltd (NS:AXBK) was up 2.84% or 16.80 points to 609.25 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Infosys Ltd (NS:INFY), which lost 1.25% or 15.70 points to trade at 1237.35 in late trade. Wipro Ltd (NS:WIPR) declined 0.97% or 3.75 points to end at 381.80 and Nestle India Ltd (NS:NEST) shed 0.82% or 152.70 points to 18580.00.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) which rose 2.94% to 609.75, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (BO:SUN) which was up 2.67% to settle at 589.85 and Reliance Industries Ltd (BO:RELI) which gained 2.58% to close at 1993.90.

The worst performers were Infosys Ltd (BO:INFY) which was down 1.30% to 1236.70 in late trade, IndusInd Bank Ltd. (BO:INBK) which lost 0.70% to settle at 850.85 and Nestle India Ltd (BO:NEST) which was down 0.67% to 18598.60 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 947 to 705 and 61 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1597 rose and 1228 declined, while 171 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 2.57% to 19.9675.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.01% or 0.25 to $1878.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.29% or 0.14 to hit $47.98 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.27% or 0.14 to trade at $51.10 a barrel.

USD/INR was down 0.33% to 73.524, while EUR/INR fell 0.24% to 89.6775.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 90.135.