IT stocks witnessed heavy selling pressure in early trade on Tuesday, dragging the Nifty IT index down over 2% to hover near a three-year low, with sector heavyweights dominating the benchmark losers list.
The broader market remained range-bound. At 9:33 am, the Sensex slipped 93 points, or 0.1%, to 75,410, while the Nifty50 declined 32 points to 23,377. Despite the weakness, market breadth stayed positive, with 1,632 stocks advancing against 1,363 declines.
The Nifty IT index dropped 2.33%, emerging as the worst-performing sectoral index in early trade.
Selling was widespread across frontline IT names. Wipro fell over 3%, making it the top loser on the Nifty. Infosys declined around 2.2%, HCL Technologies lost about 2.1%, while TCS slipped nearly 1.8%. Tech Mahindra was down over 1.2%, placing all five major IT stocks among the top laggards on the benchmark index.
The weakness extended to the broader IT space as well, with Coforge plunging over 5%, becoming the top loser on the BSE Midcap index, indicating broad-based selling across technology stocks.
The sharp correction in IT stocks came even as benchmark indices hovered near the flatline, pointing to sector-specific pressure ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy decision. Markets are widely expecting the Fed to hold interest rates for now.
Analysts have also flagged concerns around the global demand outlook, particularly in key markets like the US, amid persistent geopolitical tensions and uncertainty around economic growth.
While a weaker rupee typically benefits export-oriented IT companies, the current risk-off sentiment and global market volatility appear to be weighing on investor confidence.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, noted that sustained foreign institutional investor (FII) selling continues to pressure large-cap stocks. “FII selling is likely to persist in the near term, and even fundamentally strong sectors are not immune,” he said.
Meanwhile, market volatility showed signs of easing, with the India VIX declining around 3%, indicating some moderation in near-term risk perception.
