India shares lower at close of trade; Nifty 50 down 1.11%

India equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Technology and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 fell 1.11%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index fell 1.17%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were ITC Ltd (NS:ITC), which rose 3.35% or 7.05 points to trade at 217.65 at the close. Bajaj Auto Ltd (NS:BAJA) added 2.66% or 94.90 points to end at 3664.50 and Hindalco Industries Ltd. (NS:HALC) was up 1.65% or 5.40 points to 331.80 in late trade.

Biggest losers included HCL Technologies Ltd (NS:HCLT), which lost 4.02% or 39.70 points to trade at 947.75 in late trade. Infosys Ltd (NS:INFY) declined 3.60% or 49.90 points to end at 1337.10 and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (NS:REDY) shed 3.29% or 143.10 points to 4212.75.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which rose 3.25% to 217.40, Bajaj Auto Ltd (BO:BAJA) which was up 2.53% to settle at 3666.00 and Bharti Airtel Ltd (BO:BRTI) which gained 1.47% to close at 530.55.

The worst performers were HCL Technologies Ltd (BO:HCLT) which was down 3.40% to 953.90 in late trade, Infosys Ltd (BO:INFY) which lost 3.28% to settle at 1341.65 and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (BO:REDY) which was down 2.91% to 4230.00 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1300 to 359 and 60 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2067 fell and 804 advanced, while 128 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 0.38% to 20.0800 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.37% or 6.45 to $1733.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.31% or 0.20 to hit $64.40 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.28% or 0.19 to trade at $67.81 a barrel.

USD/INR was down 0.07% to 72.507, while EUR/INR fell 0.38% to 86.5800.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 91.618.