Indian Stocks Tank For 3rd Day; IT Stocks Buck The Trend

Indian stock indices settled in the red for the third straight day on Friday, the last session of the current week, due to looming uncertainties around President Donald Trump-elect’s likely actions post his inauguration.

The Indian equity markets underperformed most global markets. The Sensex and Nifty index declined by 2 per cent this week, said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research at Kotak Securities.

Besides, consistent selling by foreign investors and weak domestic economic growth also reflected on the stock markets.

Sensex closed at 77,378.91 points, down 241.30 points or 0.31 per cent, Nifty closed at 23,440.00 points, down 86.50 points or 0.37 per cent.

All the sectoral indices were deep in the red except Nifty IT, which closed 3.44 percent higher. Nifty media, PSU bank, and realty were the top losers.

“In the context of the looming uncertainty regarding President Trump’s likely actions, the market is unlikely to rally in the near-term. There appears to be no respite to the sustained FII selling…This will continue to put pressure on the market,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

“Since the results season has started the market will witness lots of stock-specific action in response to the results. Results of TCS indicate that the IT sector will continue to remain resilient. Results of banking majors will be good but in the context of FII selling the sector may not perform in response to the results,” he added.

Nifty IT jumped today reacting to robust earnings reported by Tata Consultancy Services.

IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has reported a 12 per cent jump in net profit in the just-concluded October-December quarter, its earnings released Thursday showed. The net profit rose to Rs 12,444 crore in the December quarter, as against Rs 11,097 crore in the year-ago period.

With TCS releasing Q3 earnings, the corporate earnings season for the October-December quarter kicked off. Earning insights of India Inc. will give cues to market participants. Coming to revenue from operations, the IT services major reported a 5.6 per cent rise to Rs 63,973 crore in the December quarter, as against Rs 60,583 crore in the year-ago period.

TCS shares today closed 5.6 per cent higher at Rs 4,265.

“Upcoming inflation data would be an important macro data to watch out. Stock specific action is expected over the next few weeks as the companies declare their Q3FY25 results,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities. (ANI)