Mumbai, February 12 Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty declined in the early trading session on Thursday, driven by heavy losses in IT stocks such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, amid weak cues from US markets.
Continuing the previous day's decline, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 421.66 points, or 0.50 percent, to 83,811.98 in the early trading session. The 50-share NSE Nifty fell by 121.10 points, or 0.47 percent, to 25,832.75.
Analysts said rising crude oil prices also contributed to the cautious sentiment among investors.
Among the Sensex constituents, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Eternal, Mahindra & Mahindra, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Adani Ports, IndiGo, Maruti Suzuki India, and Sun Pharmaceuticals were the laggards.
On the other hand, ICICI Bank, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, NTPC, Titan, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, and Bharti Airtel were among the gainers.
Among sectoral indices, the IT pack saw the steepest decline, falling by 3.95 percent, while the focused IT index declined by 3.87 percent on the BSE.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said, "IT stocks, reeling from the 'anthropic shock', are unlikely to recover soon. The sharp decline in the ADRs of top Indian IT companies in the US on Wednesday indicates that Indian IT will continue to struggle. A shift from IT to other sectors will help stocks in performing sectors."
In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi advanced by over 2 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 index, and Shanghai's SSE Composite index, were also traded in the positive territory, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was quoted in the red zone.
The US equities market closed lower on Wednesday.
"The latest US jobs data, indicating the addition of 1,30,000 jobs last month and unemployment falling to 4.3 percent, points to the possibility of no rate cuts by the Fed in the near term. In India, too, it appears that the rate-cutting cycle is over, as growth is good and inflation is expected to inch back to the RBI's long-term target by the end of FY27," Vijayakumar added.
Meanwhile, Foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 943.81 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of stocks worth Rs 125.36 crore, according to exchange data.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose by 0.46 percent to USD 69.72 per barrel.
On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex slipped by 40.28 points to close at 84,233.64, while the NSE Nifty edged up by 18.70 points to settle at 25,953.85.
