Indian IT shares climb as global AI stocks sell off

what happened

Shares of leading Indian IT companies rose in early trade on Friday as global stocks tied to artificial intelligence came under pressure. HCL Technologies, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services gained 1–2%, while Wipro, Persistent Systems and Coforge each rose about 1%. At midday the Nifty IT index was marginally higher at 32,111.75, the only sector in the domestic market in the green, and it has added 17% so far this month, according to TradingView citing Informist.

The sell-off reflects growing concern about unchecked AI-related spending. South Korea's KOSPI and Japan's Nikkei 225 each fell about 1%, after the Nasdaq Composite lost nearly 3% overnight and Meta shares dropped almost 8% following the company's first cash outflow in more than a decade.

Sumit Pokharna, vice president for IT at Kotak Securities, told Informist that the rally is being driven by domestic institutional investors rather than foreign ones.

why it matters

Some analysts see Indian IT stocks as a relative hedge against the global AI trade, since they can benefit from demand for AI consulting and integration without the heavy upfront spending on data centres and chips that hyperscalers face. Quarterly results from TCS, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra broadly met expectations, and investors now await Infosys results due later the same day.

market impact

Indian IT stocks: relative safe haven amid the AI sell-off in the US and Asia, with Infosys results the next catalyst

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instruments