Investing.com – India equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Durables, Banking and Public Sector Undertakings sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.53% to hit a new 6-month high, while the BSE Sensex 30 index added 0.46%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Grasim Industries Ltd. (NS:GRAS), which rose 2.86% or 132.25 points to trade at 4760.75 at the close. ICICI Bank Ltd . (NS:ICBK) added 2.85% or 7.45 points to end at 268.60 and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (NS:MRTI) was up 2.47% or 106.90 points to 4428.30 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (NS:ONGC), which lost 1.54% or 3.60 points to trade at 230.55 in late trade. Infosys Ltd (NS:INFY) declined 1.47% or 17.55 points to end at 1176.25 and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NS:SUN) shed 1.28% or 10.00 points to 768.55.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were ICICI Bank Ltd. (BO:ICBK) which rose 2.72% to 268.25, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (BO:MRTI) which was up 2.44% to settle at 4425.55 and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BO:BHEL) which gained 2.08% to close at 144.50.
The worst performers were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (BO:ONGC) which was down 1.53% to 231.00 in late trade, Infosys Ltd (BO:INFY) which lost 1.45% to settle at 1175.85 and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (BO:MAHM) which was down 1.26% to 1445.95 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 898 to 566 and 59 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 975 rose and 617 declined, while 58 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India Vix, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 1.86% to 15.6100.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 1.07% or 14.35 to $1329.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.23% or 0.55 to hit $45.30 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.19% or 0.55 to trade at $46.81 a barrel.
USD/INR was down 0.13% to 66.915, while EUR/INR fell 0.05% to 74.2890.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.05% at 96.31.