Top gainers and losers on Feb 20: Hindalco, NTPC, SBI Life were among top gainers from NIFTY50

Indian equity benchmarks closed higher on Friday, rebounding from the sharp sell-off in the previous session, despite lingering concerns over rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty around the US Federal Reserve’s interest-rate outlook.

After making a slightly negative start, soon indices turned positive and remained higher throughout the session, as traders took support after a private survey showed that India's private sector accelerated in February led by robust demand for goods even as services growth was broadly steady.

The SENSEX ended at 82814.71, up by 316.57 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 82206.21 and 83132.08. 22 stocks were advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.66%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.37%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.71%, Power Grid Corp up by 1.29% and Tata Steel up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Kwality Walls (India) down by 3.97%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.75%, Eternal down by 1.27%, Infosys down by 1.21%, and HCL Technologies down by 0.76% were the top losers.

The NIFTY50 ended at 25571.25, up by 116.90 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 25379.75 and 25663.55. 36 stocks were advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.32%, NTPC up by 2.68%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.33%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.86% and Coal India up by 1.77%.

On the flip side, Kwality Walls (India) down by 3.01%, Infosys down by 1.31%, Eternal down by 1.31%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.03%, and Grasim Industries down by 1.02% were the top losers.

At the broad level indices, the NIFTY Smallcap 100 index closed in 0.11% lower on Friday against the rally in the benchmark indices. Amongst the small-cap stocks, KPIL was up 2.9%, HSCL was up 2.8%, CESC was up 2.2%, and Navin Flourine was up 2.13%. On the flipside, Newgen Software (-11.7%), IKS (-4.18%), Ola Electric (-3.8%), ABREL (-3.5%) and FSL (-2.9%) were the top losers in the index.

While the midcap index maintained the winning trend with the benchmark indices, the NIFTY Midcap 100 jumped 286 points at 59,513. Among the gainers, KEI Industries, Power India, TIIndia, Policy bazaar and IRCTC were the top gainers by gaining up to 5% on Friday. While Persistent (-3.08%), Godfrey Phillips (-2.12%), VMM (-2.04%), SBI Card and Payments (-2.02%) and Dixon (-1.9%) were the top losers.