Indian stocks slide for a fourth day as oil outweighs IT rally

what happened

Indian benchmark indexes gave up their early gains on Friday and turned lower, extending a decline that has now run for four sessions. The Nifty 50 dropped 0.70% to 22,529.15, while the Sensex fell 0.39% to 72,964.13. Figures are as of 10:13 a.m. IST (0443 GMT), according to Reuters.

Over the last three sessions the main indexes have lost roughly 2%. Sentiment has been weighed down by crude, with Brent futures climbing to about $114 a barrel on fears of supply disruption after Yemen's Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia, the world's top exporter. Fifteen of the 16 major sectors ended in the red, and the small-cap and mid-cap gauges fell 3.4% and 2.5%.

The IT index rose 1%, bucking a tech selloff across Asia that followed an overnight drop of more than 2% in the Nasdaq Composite. Meta shares lost nearly 8% on Wall Street after the Facebook parent reported its first cash outflow in over a decade, driven by AI spending. Swiggy tumbled 13% as several brokerages questioned its ability to fix its quick-commerce business and food delivery margins. Colgate-Palmolive India shed 4.6% despite a 4% rise in September-quarter profit, while Cyient jumped 7.5% after upbeat quarterly results.

why it matters

Analysts see Indian IT companies as a relative hedge against the global AI trade, since they benefit from rising demand for AI consulting and integration while needing far less upfront spending on data centres and chips than global hyperscalers. The bigger near-term concern is oil. Hariselvan Radhakrishnan, founder and CEO of HST Wealth, said Brent near $114 could push up inflation and weigh on consumption and corporate profits, not just sentiment.

market impact

Indian equities: expensive crude pressures shares via inflation and corporate profits, while IT stocks gain relative support

instruments