17 Mar , 2026 By : Debdeep Gupta
IT stocks came under sharp selling pressure on Tuesday morning, with the Nifty IT index falling over 2 percent to hover near a three-year low, as heavyweights across the sector dominated the Nifty top losers list. Benchmark indices were swinging between mild gains and losses in the morning trade. At 09:33 am, the Sensex was down 93 points or 0.1 percent at 75,410, while the Nifty slipped 32 points to 23,377. Market breadth remained positive, with 1,632 shares advancing against 1,363 declines.
The Nifty IT index declined 2.33 percent, making it the worst-performing sectoral index in early trade.
All major IT stocks were under pressure. Wipro fell sharply by over 3 percent, emerging as the top loser on the Nifty. Infosys dropped around 2.2 percent, while HCL Technologies declined about 2.1 percent. TCS slipped nearly 1.8 percent, and Tech Mahindra was down over 1.2 percent, placing all five IT majors among the top losers on the benchmark index.
The weakness extended to the broader market as well. Coforge plunged over 5 percent, emerging as the top loser on the BSE Midcap index, indicating broad-based selling across IT and technology services stocks.
The sharp decline in IT stocks comes even as the broader market traded near the flatline, highlighting sector-specific pressure, ahead of the upcoming US Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting. The markets now widely expect that the Fed may choose not to cut the interest rate yet.
Recent analyst commentary has also attributed the ongoing weakness in IT stocks to around global demand outlook, particularly in key markets like the US, amid ongoing geopolitical tensions and uncertainty around economic growth.
The sector is also sensitive to currency movements and global risk sentiment. While a weaker rupee typically supports export-oriented IT companies, the current risk-off environment and volatility in global markets appear to be weighing on investor sentiment.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, said sustained foreign institutional investor (FII) selling continues to pressure largecap stocks. “FII selling is likely to persist in the near term, and even fundamentally strong sectors and stocks are not immune to this trend,” he said.
Despite the decline in equities, market volatility eased slightly, with the India VIX falling around 3 percent, suggesting some cooling in near-term risk perception.
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