Equities reverse early trend, rise in afternoon trade

New Delhi, Feb 21 After declining in early trade, key indices S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 rose in the afternoon on Friday primarily due to value buying, said analysts.

Geo-strategic tensions between Ukraine and Russia had weighed on the indices in the recent sessions, which led to heavy sell-off by foreign institutional investors.

Investors should wait till clarity emerges on the Russia-Ukraine front, said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

At 1.19 p.m., Sensex traded at 58,099 points, up 0.5 per cent or 266 points, whereas Nifty traded 17,330 points, up 0.3 per cent or 54 points.

Among the stocks, Shree Cement, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Wipro, and Power Grid Corporation of India were the top five gainers among the Nifty 50 companies during the afternoon trade, rising 2.1 per cent, 1.8 per cent, 1.6 per cent, 1.5 per cent, and 1.3 per cent, respectively.

Hindalco, UPL, Divi's Labs, Sun Pharma, ONGC, on the other hand, were the top five losers.

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