IT stocks were among the laggards in the Sensex and Nifty’s decline on Tuesday, a nearly 1 per cent decline in early trade that was driven by fears of artificial intelligence-led disruptions.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 813.13 points, or 0.97 per cent, to 82,481.53 points in early deals, according to data in a PTI report. The 50-share NSE Nifty fell 230.15 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 25,482.85.
Eternal shares were the biggest losers among the Sensex companies, falling 3.82 per cent, followed by HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Trent, Adani Ports, ITC and Titan.
TCS, Infosys, HCLTech and Wipro lost between 2.5 per cent to 4 per cent, according to a Reuters report.
Why did IT stocks fall?
The decline in Asian stock markets was driven by a report released on Sunday by Citrini Research, a New York-based financial services firm, which outlined forward-looking scenarios highlighting areas of the global economy potentially vulnerable to AI disruption. Industries such as credit card services and food delivery platforms have been identified as particularly vulnerable to new automation tools.
“The political response has always lagged behind economic reality, but the lack of a comprehensive plan now threatens to accelerate the deflationary spiral,” the report says, according to the Associated Press.
Adding to the dampening of sentiment was an announcement from Anthropic that its Claude chatbot could help update COBOL – the legacy programming language widely used in IBM (International Business Machines Corp) computers. In the wake of this news, IBM shares fell more than 13 percent in New York trading, reflecting investor concerns about the competitive and technological shift.
IBM shares’ 13 percent drop on Monday was the largest single-day percentage loss since October 2000. With that decline, IBM shares fell 27 percent in February, on track for their biggest one-month decline since at least 1968, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Besides, traders said rising crude oil prices and renewed concerns over global trade following US President Donald Trump’s recent comments on tariffs also impacted investor sentiment, according to news agency PTI.
On Monday, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose 479.95 points to settle at 83,294.66, while the NSE Nifty advanced 141.75 points to close at 25,713.
