India Stocks Ended Higher; Nifty 50 up 0.26%

India stocks ended higher after the close of trade on Friday. Gains in the Public Sector Undertakings, Oil & Gas, as well as Power sectors, led shares higher.

The Nifty 50 gained 0.26% at the close in NSE. The BSE Sensex 30 index climbed 0.30%.

The outperformers of the Nifty 50 were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (NS:ONGC). Hence, they rose 5.46% or 5.00 points to trade at 96.65 at the close. 

Meanwhile, NTPC Ltd (NS:NTPC) added 5.15% or 5.00 points to end at 102.15. Moreover, GAIL Ltd (NS:GAIL) was up 5.04% or 6.05 points to 126.10 in late trade.

AXIS Bank Ltd (NS:AXBK) were the worst performers of the session. As a result, they fell 2.34% or 14.65 points to trade at 612.40 at the close.

Adani Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd (NS:APSE) declined 1.27% or 6.00 points to end at 465.00. In addition, Eicher Motors Ltd. (NS:EICH) dropped 1.11% or 27.65 points to 2465.00.

BSE Sensex 30

The outperformers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (BO:ONGC). They rose 5.57% to 96.70 with NTPC Ltd (BO:NTPC), which was up 5.24% to settle at 102.35. Moreover, Tata Steel Ltd (BO:TISC) gained 1.90% to close at 621.75.

In contrast, The worst performers in this particular session were AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK). They were down 2.30% to 612.65 in late trade. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (BO:MAHM) lost 1.04% to settle at 728.35. Tech Mahindra Ltd (BO:TEML) was down 0.73% to 921.00 at the close.

On the India National Stock Exchange, the number of rising stocks exceeded that of the declining ones. That was by 978 to 676, and 51 ended unchanged.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1692 were up, and 1161 were down, while 141 ended unchanged.

The India VIX was up 0.41% to 18.7900. It is what measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options.

In precious metals, gold futures for February delivery was up 0.05% or 0.90 to $1838.30 a troy ounce. In energy commodities, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.26% or 0.12 to hit $46.66 a barrel. The February Brent oil contract fell 0.36% or 0.18 to trade at $50.07 a barrel.

USD/INR slipped 0.06% to 73.697. Meanwhile, EUR/INR dropped 0.12% to 89.3870.

The US Dollar Index Futures rose 0.10% at 90.912.

Elsewhere in stock market news, U.S. stocks are seen opening lower on Friday. Lawmakers continue to stall over a new COVID-19 relief package while the economic outlook weakens.