Equity benchmarks remained under severe pressure in afternoon trade on Friday, with the Sensex down 826.65 points or 0.99 per cent to 82,848.27 and the Nifty falling 264.85 points or 1.03 per cent to 25,542.35 at 1:00 pm, as technology stocks continued their sharp decline amid mounting concerns over artificial intelligence-led disruption to the country’s labour-intensive IT services model.
The Nifty IT index tumbled 1.79 per cent to 32,568.00 from its previous close of 33,160.20, extending Thursday’s steep 4.72 per cent fall that marked its worst single-day decline in ten months. Coforge led the losses with a 4.57 per cent drop to ₹1,356.60, followed by Oracle Financial Services Software down 2.42 per cent to ₹6,600.00, TCS falling 2.36 per cent to ₹2,685.10, Infosys declining 2.24 per cent to ₹1,355.00, and Wipro down 2.18 per cent to ₹214.30. LTIMindtree fell 1.70 per cent to ₹5,123.00, HCL Technologies dropped 0.93 per cent to ₹1,462.30, while Persistent Systems slipped 0.52 per cent to ₹5,423.50, Mphasis declined 0.36 per cent to ₹2,455.10, and Tech Mahindra posted a marginal 0.07 per cent gain to ₹1,537.60.
The broader market decline was triggered by fading expectations of near-term US rate cuts following strong American jobs data and an overnight 2.03 per cent drop in the Nasdaq, which intensified concerns about global technology valuations. Citi noted that unlike the Cloud migration era, the current AI shift poses unique challenges for Indian IT firms, which have doubled in size since then and now face incumbency risk as dominant players being disrupted rather than challengers. The brokerage highlighted that AI’s impact is more pervasive than Cloud, which primarily affected infrastructure, while new revenue streams from AI remain small and exploratory, unable to offset losses in traditional work.
Swapnil Aggarwal, Director at VSRK Capital, said the weakness is largely driven by selling pressure in IT due to concerns around global demand slowdown, cautious tech company commentary, and uncertainty related to AI-led disruptions and job losses. “At present, this appears to be more of a sentiment-driven correction rather than the start of a deeper structural downturn. Domestic macro fundamentals remain relatively stable, but the market is lacking strong upward momentum, which may keep indices range-bound in the near term,” Aggarwal added, recommending investors adopt systematic investment plans or systematic transfer plans to navigate volatility.
N ArunaGiri, CEO of TrustLine Holdings, presented a more balanced view, arguing that AI is likely to dramatically compress the software development lifecycle and could expand demand rather than shrink it. “Lower costs and faster execution may unlock a much larger volume of projects across enterprises and consumers. Large enterprises operate in highly complex environments characterized by deep legacy software stacks, stringent regulatory environments, and mission-critical systems requiring reliability and high security,” ArunaGiri said, adding that specialized IT service providers will continue playing critical roles in integration, compliance, and large-scale transformation.
Losers & gainers
Among broader market losers, Hindalco dropped 4.98 per cent to ₹916.35, Hindustan Unilever fell 3.59 per cent to ₹2,323.30, Eternal declined 3.46 per cent to ₹287.70, Adani Enterprises slipped 2.85 per cent to ₹2,148.80, and ONGC fell 2.68 per cent to ₹268.95. Gainers included Eicher Motors up 1.64 per cent to ₹8,073.00, Bajaj Finance rising 1.15 per cent to ₹1,010.55, TMPV gaining 0.40 per cent to ₹385.00, Apollo Hospitals up 0.07 per cent to ₹7,544.00, and State Bank of India adding 0.07 per cent to ₹1,193.20.
Market breadth remained weak with 2,752 stocks declining against 1,256 advancing on the BSE, while 156 stocks hit 52-week lows compared to 76 touching 52-week highs. The Nifty Midcap 100 fell 1.38 per cent to 59,633.80 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 1.39 per cent to 17,101.10, while Nifty Bank dropped 0.74 per cent to 60,290.15.
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Published on February 13, 2026
