India stocks lower at close of trade; Nifty 50 down 0.18%

Investing.com – India stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Metals, Oil & Gas and Real Estate sectors led shares lower.

At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 declined 0.18%, while the BSE Sensex 30 index declined 0.21%.

The best performers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Shriram Finance Ltd. (NSE:SHMF), which rose 1.76% or 11.75 points to trade at 680.70 at the close. Meanwhile, Bajaj Finance Ltd (NSE:BJFN) added 1.33% or 12.35 points to end at 940.00 and Coal India Ltd (NSE:COAL) was up 1.31% or 5.00 points to 387.85 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were HCL Technologies Ltd (NSE:HCLT), which fell 2.05% or 35.10 points to trade at 1,673.00 at the close. Hindalco Industries Ltd. (NSE:HALC) declined 1.76% or 12.10 points to end at 673.50 and Tata Steel Ltd (NSE:TISC) was down 1.71% or 2.77 points to 159.20.

The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Bajaj Finance Ltd (BO:BJFN) which rose 1.47% to 941.00, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (BO:HLL) which was up 1.26% to settle at 2,423.05 and UltraTech Cement Ltd (BO:ULTC) which gained 0.90% to close at 12,555.55.

The worst performers were HCL Technologies Ltd (BO:HCLT) which was down 2.11% to 1,672.70 in late trade, Tata Steel Ltd (BO:TISC) which lost 1.76% to settle at 159.10 and Tech Mahindra Ltd (BO:TEML) which was down 1.39% to 1,612.35 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the India National Stock Exchange by 1217 to 1165 and 49 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1997 rose and 1860 declined, while 125 ended unchanged.

Shares in UltraTech Cement Ltd (BO:ULTC) rose to all time highs; gaining 0.90% or 112.00 to 12,555.55.

The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was down 2.52% to 11.89 a new 6-months low.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.46% or 15.20 to $3,301.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.37% or 0.25 to hit $68.58 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.29% or 0.20 to trade at $70.35 a barrel.

USD/INR was down 0.09% to 85.68, while EUR/INR fell 0.20% to 100.36.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 97.25.