India shares lower at close of trade; Nifty 50 down 1.04% By Investing.com

Investing.com – India equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Banking, Power and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 declined 1.04%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index fell 1.25%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nifty 50 were GAIL Ltd (NS:GAIL), which rose 2.38% or 3.15 points to trade at 135.50 at the close. Grasim Industries Ltd (NS:GRAS) added 2.27% or 32.30 points to end at 1454.90 and UPL Ltd (NS:UPLL) was up 2.21% or 13.90 points to 641.85 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NS:HDFC), which lost 4.13% or 107.55 points to trade at 2498.10 in late trade. HDFC Bank Ltd (NS:HDBK) declined 3.86% or 60.05 points to end at 1493.65 and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (NS:PGRD) shed 2.58% or 5.70 points to 215.65.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were ITC Ltd (BO:ITC) which rose 1.82% to 218.50, Bajaj Finserv Ltd (BO:BJFS) which was up 1.80% to settle at 9667.80 and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (BO:HLL) which gained 1.36% to close at 2430.80.

The worst performers were Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (BO:HDFC) which was down 4.06% to 2498.95 in late trade, HDFC Bank Ltd (BO:HDBK) which lost 3.86% to settle at 1493.55 and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which was down 2.71% to 215.65 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 870 to 786 and 64 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1422 fell and 1347 advanced, while 191 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 0.78% to 20.6450.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.14% or 2.40 to $1688.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.28% or 0.17 to hit $60.38 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.21 to trade at $63.96 a barrel.

USD/INR was down 0.44% to 73.117, while EUR/INR fell 0.31% to 85.7655.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 93.233.