The Indian stock market struggled to find direction on Wednesday, closing the day on a flat note amid persistent selling pressure in technology stocks. By the end of the session, the Sensex settled at 74,029.76, down 0.10%, while the Nifty closed at 22,470.50, slipping 0.12%.
The midcap and smallcap indices slipped 0.5%, while some sectors managed to stay in the green. Auto, banking, and pharma stocks gained 0.5% each. However, the pressure came from metal, IT, realty, telecom, PSU banks, and media stocks, which fell between 0.5% and 3%.
“Persistent uncertainties surrounding global trade and the fear of a U.S. recession continue to influence the domestic market’s momentum. Despite the stabilisation in valuation to the 5-year average and signs of improvement in urban and rural demand, investor risk appetite remains subdued. Today’s key concern is whether the ongoing correction happening in the US market can spill over to the global market. The US market is under pressure from weakening economic data and uncertainty over tariff policy,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
IT Stocks: Nifty IT hits 8 month low
The technology sector saw another day of sharp declines, with the Nifty IT index tumbling nearly 4% intraday, hitting an eight-month low of 35,988 points. The index has now plunged 6% in just four sessions. However, by the end of the day, some recovery was seen, limiting losses to around 2% at closing.
“Fear of tariffs are mounting, concern of US slow-down is rising, expectations of inflation uptick, uncertainty on rate cut by fed, delays in decision making on IT spend by US customers, healthy IT order pipeline was build-up but conversion stuck in a limbo, and increased competitive intensity for large deals could pressure pricing are not conducive factors for Indian IT sector. IT sector stocks are nursing steep losses due to the above mentioned factors,” said Sumit Pokharna, VP-Fundamental Research, Kotak Securities.
“We believe recent stock price correction is giving long term investors to look for quality IT services companies at reasonable valuations like TCS, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, LTTS and Coforge,” he added.
Who gained, who lost?
Despite the weakness in IT, banking and auto stocks helped cushion the fall. IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finance, and HDFC Bank were among the top gainers.
On the flip side, major IT stocks continued to struggle. Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Nestlé India, and TCS led the list of top losers, dragging the broader indices lower.