India’s IT giants dragged the stock market lower today, tracking a 2% decline on Wall Street on concerns that AI is set to disrupt their business models.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 1.07% or 903.17 points to 82,771.75, while the Nifty 50 slipped 1.13%. All 16 major sectors opened with losses and closed with losses. Here’s a look at the benchmark’s movers:
Nifty 50 Top Gainers: Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel
Nifty 50 Top Losers: Eternal, Hindustan Unilever, Adani Ports, Trent, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Indigo, Larsen & Toubro, UltraTech Cement.
The Nifty IT index, which comprises five companies – Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra making up the Nifty 50 – is on track for its worst week since the pandemic began in March 2020.
To be sure, the return of AI stocks on Wall Street is a positive for Broker Street as the broader market largely lacks exposure to this type of trading.
“What is troubling the Indian market now is the massive selling in IT stocks, which are the second-largest profit pool of India Inc,” VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments Ltd, told HT Business in an emailed statement. The real impact of ‘anthropic shock’ on the IT sector is yet to be ascertained.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, foreign institutional investors bought heavily in shares. ₹While domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 108.42 crore. ₹According to exchange data, Rs 276.85 crore.