SENSEX SLUMPS 154 PTS; IT SHARES LAG

The key equity benchmarks traded with modest losses in mid-morning trade amid profit booking in IT heavyweights and cautious global cues. The Nifty traded tad below the 25,700 level. IT shares declined after advancing in the previous two trading sessions.

At 11:30 ST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 153.71 points or 0.18% to 83,297.25. The Nifty 50 index fell 31.20 points or 0.13% to 25,692.45.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index fell 0.06% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index added 0.17%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,063 shares rose and 1,787 shares fell. A total of 198 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index declined 2.28% to 32,321.90. The index rose 1.1% in the past two trading sessions.

Persistent Systems (down 2.87%), LTIMindtree (down 2.6%), Tech Mahindra (down 2.16%), Mphasis (down 2.02%), Infosys (down 1.87%), Wipro (down 1.76%), Oracle Financial Services Software (down 1.65%), HCL Technologies (down 1.59%), Coforge (down 1.55%) and Tata Consultancy Services (down 1.12%) jumped.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Blue Cloud Softech Solutions rose 2.53% after the company announced that it has received a Letter of Intent from the Department of Telecommunications.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) rose 0.86%. The company has announced that it has received a Letter of Acceptance from Steel Authority of India (SAIL) for executing a Captive Power Plant (CPP) package.

Bosch shed 0.27%. The company announced that its board approved the appointment of Tillmann Olsen as the chief financial officer (CFO) with effect from 1 June 2026.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded mixed on Wednesday amid renewed concerns over artificial intelligence that continued to weigh on global markets.

Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea were among the markets closed for Lunar New Year holidays.

The positive start in Asia followed a lackluster session on Tuesday on Wall Street as investors grappled with the outlook for the AI boom.

Concerns that companies are over-investing, along with angst about the extent to which the nascent technology could disrupt labor markets, have fuelled investor jitters in recent weeks.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.07% to 49,533.19, the S&P 500 was up 0.10% at 6,843.22, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.14% to 22,578.38. The S&P 500 fell 0.88% initially before making up ground to close in positive territory.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were little changed on Wednesday after both slid to close at more than two-week lows in the previous session.

Following talks in Geneva on Tuesday, Iran`s foreign minister reportedly said Tehran and Washington reached an understanding on main "guiding principles" towards resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, easing worries about a military conflict near the Strait of Hormuz that could disrupt global oil supply.

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