© Reuters India stocks higher at close of trade; Nifty 50 up 0.50%

Investing.com – India stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

At the close in NSE, the gained 0.50%, while the index gained 0.51%.

The best performers of the session on the were Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NS:), which rose 2.30% or 10.10 points to trade at 449.55 at the close. Meanwhile, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:) added 2.29% or 5.20 points to end at 232.35 and Britannia Industries Ltd (NS:) was up 2.22% or 110.00 points to 5,064.95 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Bajaj Auto Ltd (NS:), which fell 1.86% or 118.10 points to trade at 6,246.35 at the close. Bajaj Finance Ltd (NS:) declined 1.69% or 126.80 points to end at 7,367.15 and HCL Technologies Ltd (NS:) was down 1.24% or 17.90 points to 1,422.05.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:) which rose 2.27% to 232.35, HDFC Bank Ltd (BO:) which was up 1.82% to settle at 1,686.40 and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (BO:) which gained 1.66% to close at 1,855.00.

The worst performers were Bajaj Finance Ltd (BO:) which was down 1.61% to 7,369.10 in late trade, Axis Bank Ltd. (BO:) which lost 1.34% to settle at 1,095.40 and HCL Technologies Ltd (BO:) which was down 1.04% to 1,424.90 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the India National Stock Exchange by 1641 to 469 and 38 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2561 rose and 1076 declined, while 119 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 4.79% to 13.76.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.09% or 1.75 to $2,045.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.20% or 0.15 to hit $74.37 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.15 to trade at $79.85 a barrel.

USD/INR was unchanged 0.00% to 83.26, while EUR/INR rose 0.06% to 91.11.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 102.02.