Sensex, Nifty50 edge lower in morning trade as IT stocks witness a sell-off: TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech amongst top losers

• India’s equity markets edged lower in morning trade on Thursday amidst a selloff in IT stocks.
  
• Four out of the top five losers on the Nifty50 index were from the IT sector.
  
• This comes after TCS struck a cautionary note while announcing its Q4 results on Wednesday and missed analyst estimates.

India’s equity markets edged lower in morning trade on Thursday amidst a selloff in IT stocks. Four out of the top five losers on the Nifty50 index were from the IT sector. This comes after TCS struck a cautionary note while announcing its Q4 results on Wednesday and missed analyst estimates.

SGX Nifty, an early indicator of how the markets may perform, was down 0.09% or 16 points early in the morning today.

Sensex was down 84 points or 0.14% at 60,308 while Nifty50 fell 19 points or 0.11% at 17,793.

Top gainers and losers on Nifty50

Top gainers	Change	Top losers	Change
Apollo Hospitals	3.50%	Tech Mahindra	-2.10%
Britannia Industries	2.36%	Infosys	-2.07%
Eicher Motors	1.65%	TCS	-1.76%
HDFC Life Insurance	1.20%	HCL Technologies	-1.76%
Nestle India	0.87%	IndusInd Bank	-1.54%

Source: NSE, as on April 13, 2023

Earlier on Wednesday, markets extended their rally to their eight consecutive session, with Sensex and Nifty50 rising 0.4% to 0.5% led by buying in IT, healthcare and auto stocks.IT giant TCS kicked off the Q4 earnings season with earnings coming in below expectations as economic uncertainty and the banking sector crisis weighed on the discretionary spendings of its clients. The company’s outgoing CEO Rajesh Gopinathan noted that the North American market turned out to be “more negative than we had expected”.

Markets mixed globally

Market sentiments globally remained mixed on Wednesday, too. US markets edged lower amid the minutes of the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) flagged off concerns over the health of the regional banks.

After a see-saw movement, all the three major indices closed in the red – Dow Jones declined 0.11%, while S&P 500 fell 0.41%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed 0.85% down.

Markets in Asia were mixed too, on Thursday morning. While Nikkei 225 was up 0.09%, Hang Seng was down 0.49% and Taiwan Weighted was lower by 0.29%. KOSPI rose 0.08%, while Shanghai Composite was down 0.09%.

Stocks to watch

TCS: The IT major reported 13.7% YoY growth in its revenue in constant currency terms to $27.9 billion for FY23 as compared to the year before. Its revenue in constant currency terms came in at $7.2 billion in Q4, making it the slowest growth in 11 quarters.

Reliance Industries: The company has reportedly started the process to set up an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), under which the group can monetise the backend warehousing and logistics assets of its retail business.

HDFC Bank: The lender has signed a master interbank credit agreement with export import (Exim) Bank of Korea for a $300 million line of credit. The pact was signed at GIFT City in Gujarat and will help the bank raise foreign currency funds to be extended to Korea related businesses.

Maruti Suzuki, IDFC First Bank: The automaker has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IDFC First Bank wherein the bank will offer personalised finance options for new cars, pre owned car loans and commercial vehicle loans while purchasing Maruti Suzuki Vehicles.

Infosys: The IT major is expected to announce its March quarter earnings today.

Anand Rathi Wealth: The Anand Rathi Group company has reported a 23% jump in its profit after tax at ₹42.7 crore during the March quarter while revenue rose by 28% to ₹146.8 crore.

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