Investing.com – India equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Banking and Metals sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NSE, the S&P CNX Nifty fell 2.21% to hit a new 1-month low, while the BSE Sensex 30 index declined 2.33%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P CNX Nifty were Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (NSE:BPCL), which rose 1.82% or 13.60 points to trade at 762.30 at the close. Bharti Airtel Ltd. (NSE:BRTI) added 1.18% or 4.65 points to end at 399.65 and UltraTech Cement Ltd (NSE:ULTC) was up 1.08% or 29.80 points to 2795.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Housing Development Finance Corp. (NSE:HDFC), which fell 5.23% or 70.85 points to trade at 1283.70 in late trade. Punjab National Bank (NSE:PNBK) declined 4.73% or 7.35 points to end at 148.15 and Wipro Ltd. (NSE:WIPR) down 4.42% or 29.20 points to 631.90.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BO:BRTI) which rose 0.98% to 398.700, Gail (India) Ltd. (BO:GAIL) which was up 0.45% to settle at 381.800 and Hero MotoCorp Limited (BO:HROM) which gained 0.29% to close at 2603.000.
The worst performers were Housing Development Finance Corp. (BO:HDFC) which was down 5.32% to 1283.200 in late trade, Wipro Ltd. (BO:WIPR) which lost 4.01% to settle at 633.900 and Sesa Sterlite Ltd (BO:SESA) which was down 3.90% to 188.550 at the close.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones by 977 to 444 and 6 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 406 fell and 178 advanced, while 1 ended unchanged on the India National Stock Exchange.
The India Vix, which measures the implied volatility of S&P CNX Nifty options, was up 15.37% to 15.1625.
Gold for April delivery was up 0.89% or 10.70 to $1207.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 3.95% or 1.95 to hit $51.16 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 3.79% or 2.14 to trade at $58.62 a barrel.
USD/INR was up 0.41% to 62.676, while EUR/INR rose 0.86% to 69.0540.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.48% at 96.61.