The sharp rally in Indian equities lost momentum on Friday, with the Sensex and Nifty slipping deep into the red and snapping a five-session winning streak, as heavy selling in IT stocks, weak global cues and other headwinds weighed on investor sentiment.
Sensex tumbled over 800 points to slip below the 76,600 level, while Nifty 50 declined over 200 points to slip below the 23,950 mark. This came after the benchmark indices jumped up to 5% over the past five sessions.
Infosys, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and TCS were the top laggards on the Sensex, plunging 6-8% each. HDFC Bank and Tata Steel also fell over 1%. Defying the broader weakness, Sun Pharma and NTPC gained nearly 1% each to emerge as the top gainers. The selloff extended to the broader market, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices declining up to 0.5%.
This comes as India VIX, which measures volatility in the stock market, jumped nearly 5% to 13.30 on Friday morning. Sectorally, Nifty IT crashed nearly 6% to lead losses. Around 1,474 stocks declined on NSE, while 1,039 advanced and 110 remained unchanged.
Here are the key factors pushing stock market down:
1) Heavy selloff in IT stocks
IT heavyweights, including Infosys, TCS, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech, crashed up to 8%, following an 11% plunge in Accenture’s share price on Wall Street after the consulting major revised its FY26 revenue growth guidance to 3-4%, compared with its earlier outlook of 3-5%. The company also projected fourth-quarter revenue of $17.75-18.4 billion, falling below Street expectations of $18.47 billion, according to LSEG data.
Accenture’s softer outlook may have retriggered worries that enterprises remain cautious on discretionary spending related to IT consulting and digital transformation projects, even as investments in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity continue. Indian IT companies derive a major portion of their revenue from the US economy. Hence, worries around reduced discretionary spending may have led to the sharp selloff in the stocks on Dalal Street.
2) FII turn net sellers
After remaining net buyers of Indian equities for three consecutive sessions, foreign investors turned net sellers on Dalal Street on Thursday, net selling shares worth Rs 1,025 crore, according to provisional data on NSE. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, however, highlighted that FII selling has reduced, and aggressive DII buying eclipsing FII selling can impart resilience to the market.
Today’s selloff in the market may have also been driven by profit booking. Sensex jumped nearly 5% over the past five sessions, while Nifty 50 gained over 4% as the US-Iran peace deal brought much-needed relief to the stock market, which took heavy losses earlier amid the raging war. However, investors may be booking profits today after the sharp rally amid underlying headwinds.
Dalal Street is mostly accompanying its Asian peers in losses today. South Korea’s Kospi and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled nearly 2% each. Japan’s Nikkei was off to a muted start. Wall Street indices rallied yesterday, but Dow Jones futures are currently down, implying a bearish start for Wall Street today.
