India stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Real Estate, Oil&Gas and Public Sector Undertakings sectors led shares higher.
At the close in NSE, the Nifty 50 gained 0.31% to hit a new 6-months high, while the BSE Sensex 30 index climbed 0.19%.
The best performers of the session on the Nifty 50 were Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (NS:HPCL), which rose 3.45% or 9.55 points to trade at 286.80 at the close. Meanwhile, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (NS:IOC) added 3.65% or 5.75 points to end at 162.80 and Bajaj Finance Ltd (NS:BJFN) was up 2.77% or 79.25 points to 2929.55 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Lupin Ltd (NS:LUPN), which fell 3.98% or 31.25 points to trade at 754.20 at the close. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (NS:MRTI) declined 2.57% or 182.00 points to end at 6909.10 and Hero MotoCorp Ltd (NS:HROM) was down 2.37% or 64.85 points to 2669.50.
The top performers on the BSE Sensex 30 were Bajaj Finance Ltd (BO:BJFN) which rose 2.84% to 2941.00, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (BO:PGRD) which was up 2.29% to settle at 196.75 and AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) which gained 2.21% to close at 751.95.
The worst performers were Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (BO:MRTI) which was down 2.56% to 6910.35 in late trade, Hero MotoCorp Ltd (BO:HROM) which lost 2.47% to settle at 2671.50 and Bharti Airtel Ltd (BO:BRTI) which was down 2.08% to 330.00 at the close.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the India National Stock Exchange by 960 to 654 and 70 ended unchanged; on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1504 fell and 1098 advanced, while 163 ended unchanged.
Shares in AXIS Bank Ltd. (BO:AXBK) rose to all time highs; gaining 2.21% or 16.25 to 751.95.
The India VIX, which measures the implied volatility of Nifty 50 options, was up 6.52% to 16.9000.
Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.17% or 2.25 to $1305.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.20% or 0.12 to hit $58.70 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.07% or 0.05 to trade at $67.21 a barrel.
USD/INR was down 0.53% to 68.600, while EUR/INR fell 0.30% to 77.8140.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 95.917.
