India shares lower at close of trade; Nifty 50 down 0.91%

India equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Auto, Metals and Banking sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 lost 0.91%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index fell 0.85%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were UPL Ltd (NS:UPLL), which rose 2.56% or 13.85 points to trade at 554.90 at the close. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (NS:REDY) added 2.36% or 109.05 points to end at 4726.00 and IndusInd Bank Ltd. (NS:INBK) was up 2.27% or 23.75 points to 1069.80 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (NS:ONGC), which lost 5.06% or 5.60 points to trade at 105.10 in late trade. Tata Steel Ltd (NS:TISC) declined 4.06% or 28.35 points to end at 669.40 and Hero MotoCorp Ltd (NS:HROM) shed 3.75% or 132.10 points to 3390.75.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were IndusInd Bank Ltd. (BO:INBK) which rose 2.15% to 1069.00, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (BO:HLL) which was up 1.69% to settle at 2184.00 and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (BO:REDY) which gained 1.46% to close at 4685.15.

The worst performers were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (BO:ONGC) which was down 5.06% to 105.10 in late trade, State Bank Of India (BO:SBI) which lost 3.77% to settle at 399.35 and AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) which was down 3.48% to 750.20 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1027 to 623 and 55 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1677 fell and 1156 advanced, while 171 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 3.28% to 22.2500.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.21% or 3.65 to $1771.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 2.02% or 1.22 to hit $59.30 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 1.55% or 0.99 to trade at $62.94 a barrel.

USD/INR was down 0.14% to 72.478, while EUR/INR rose 0.29% to 87.9915.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.38% at 90.257.