BENGALURU, Feb 24, 2026, 22:32 IST — After hours
- Nifty 50 closed roughly 1.1% lower, while the Sensex lost more than 1,000 points.
- IT stocks took the brunt, with fresh tariff talk and AI shake-up fears shaking up risk sentiment.
Tuesday saw Indian equities tumble, with another round of selling hammering information technology stocks. The Nifty 50 gave up 288.35 points, losing 1.12% to finish at 25,424.65. The Sensex fared no better, shedding 1,068.74 points, or 1.28%, ending at 82,225.92.
The Nifty IT index plunged 4.7%, hitting its lowest point in two and a half years. That’s a 21% drop just in February, erasing roughly $68.5 billion in market cap across its 10 stocks. Worries are mounting among investors that artificial intelligence is moving fast enough to threaten India’s tech services industry for the long haul.
Awkward timing with month-end looming. Unless there’s a sharp reversal in the coming three sessions, the IT index is staring at its steepest monthly loss since April 2003—a stretch marked by fallout from the Iraq war, disappointing Infosys numbers, and the SARS scare.
Shares of Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCLTech, and Wipro fell between 2.7% and 6.1%, ranking them as the steepest laggards on the key indices.
The old playbook isn’t working anymore, said Sachin Gupta, vice president of research at Choice Broking. Traders now lean on a “sell on rise” strategy, according to Gupta, with rebounds prompting them to pare back positions instead of buying dips. Moneycontrol
Losses weren’t limited to the tech sector—Sensex and Nifty both dropped to sharper lows during the session before paring back some of the slide. Market capitalisation shed around 3.5 trillion rupees, landing at 465.6 trillion rupees. Data showed the Sensex touched 81,935 at its lowest and Nifty reached 25,328.
Jefferies knocked several big IT names down a peg on Monday, lowering its ratings for Infosys, HCL Technologies and Mphasis to “hold” and slapping “underperform” labels on TCS, LTIMindtree and Hexaware. The brokerage cited AI-driven shifts in the sector and flagged a risk that revenue from legacy services could come under strain. Business Standard
Textile exporters took a hit after the Directorate General of Foreign Trade slashed RoDTEP export incentives to 50% of the current rates, effective immediately. Federation of Indian Export Organisations president S C Ralhan called it “ill-timed” and appealed: “We request the government to reconsider the decision,” according to PTI. Moneycontrol
But there’s a brighter spot for some exporters. Gokaldas Exports, the supplier to Walmart and Gap, is eyeing relief on its core margins in fiscal 2027, according to Managing Director Sivaramakrishnan Ganapathi. India’s trade deal slashed U.S. tariffs on Indian textiles, now at 18% from a steep 50%. “It’s better than where we were,” Ganapathi told Reuters. Reuters
The larger issue facing markets now: is this AI pullback a brief stumble, or are investors fundamentally revaluing the sector? Fresh tariff news, or another sudden shift in U.S. tech stocks, could easily flip sentiment yet again. Indian benchmarks, for their part, have begun responding more quickly to these signals.
Attention shifts to the last three February sessions, with eyes on key data set for Feb. 27: India’s January fiscal deficit due at 3:30 p.m. IST and GDP figures for October-December landing at 4:00 p.m. IST. Markets are also watching oil prices and tariff policy for fresh cues. “The risk remains over spike in oil prices and rise in global bond yields,” said Prashant Pimple, fixed income CIO at Baroda BNP Mutual Fund. Reuters
