Equities trade negative in early trade, Sensex down 180 pts

New Delhi, Feb 18 : India's key indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- declined marginally in early trade on Friday.

At 09.54 a.m., Sensex traded at 57,709 points, down 0.3 per cent or 183 points, whereas Nifty traded 17,259 points, down 0.3 per cent or 46 points.

Among the stocks, Cipla, ONGC, Divi's Labs, Infosys, and Wipro were the top five losers among the Nifty 50 companies, declining 1.8 per cent, 1.2 per cent, 1.2 per cent, 1.2 per cent, and 1.1 per cent, respectively.

Coal India, SBI Life, L&T, Tata Steel, and UPL, on the other hand, were the top gainers in the morning session.