Indian equity markets are once again staring at heightened uncertainty. Concerns over the impact of Anthropic’s new AI agent on IT sector revenues, the lack of clarity on the India–US trade agreement, and the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy announcement scheduled for tomorrow have collectively weighed on sentiment.
The RBI is set to announce its policy decision tomorrow morning. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) began its meeting yesterday. With inflation remaining under control, surplus liquidity in the banking system, and credit growth staying strong, market participants largely expect the repo rate to be left unchanged.
Gift Nifty futures at GIFT City closed overnight at 25,864.50. In early morning trade, the index moved up to 25,888 before slipping to 25,848, indicating a largely flat opening for domestic markets.
In the US ADR market, Infosys fell 3.35 percent, while Wipro ended flat after a volatile session. However, in post-market trade, Infosys gained 1.67 percent and Wipro rose 0.76 percent. Stronger-than-expected results from Alphabet boosted US tech futures, helping ADRs recover. This positive momentum could reflect in Indian tech stocks during today’s session.
Details of the India–US trade agreement are still awaited. Markets expect further clarity if Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses Parliament today.
Sharp losses in IT stocks prevented Indian markets from posting meaningful gains on Wednesday. The benchmarks recovered significantly from early losses but ended with only marginal gains.
The IT index plunged 5.87 percent, led by:
Infosys down 7.37 percent
TCS down 6.99 percent
Coforge down 6.02 percent
Mindtree down 5.84 percent
Export-oriented stocks in textiles, seafood, and chemicals continued their rally:
Kitex Garments surged early before closing 8.41 percent higher
Gokaldas Exports hit the upper circuit for the second straight day
Indo Count rose up to 20 percent intraday, closing 13.24 percent higher
Apex Frozen Foods gained 6 percent
Avanti Feeds jumped 12.23 percent
Market breadth remained positive on both BSE and NSE.
Technically, Nifty shows signs of upward momentum despite limited gains. A move above 25,900 could open the path towards 26,300. Immediate support lies at 25,670 and 25,570, while resistance is seen at 25,820 and 25,890.
The sharp sell-off in IT stocks was triggered by Anthropic’s launch of a new version of its Claude “Co-Worker” AI agent. The tool is capable of independently performing tasks such as coding, legal advisory work, data analysis, design, marketing, contract drafting, and negotiations—without human supervision.
This development threatens traditional revenue streams of Indian IT companies. Services that previously cost millions of dollars can now be accessed for a few thousand dollars, raising fears of large-scale job losses among coders and data analysts. The term “saaspocalypse” has emerged to describe the potential disruption to the Software-as-a-Service model.
Technology stocks continued to slide amid concerns over returns from AI investments.
AMD plunged 17.31 percent
Micron fell 9.5 percent
Broadcom declined 3.8 percent
Nvidia slipped 3.41 percent
Sentiment improved after market hours as Alphabet’s results reassured investors that AI investments are turning profitable. Quarterly revenue crossed $40 billion, with strong growth in YouTube earnings, triggering a rebound in tech stocks that had fallen during the session.
On Wednesday:
Dow Jones rose 260.31 points (0.53%) to 49,501.30
S&P 500 fell 35.09 points (0.51%) to 6,882.72
Nasdaq dropped 350.61 points (1.51%) to 22,904.58
US futures were trading higher this morning, with the Dow up 0.12 percent, S&P 500 up 0.40 percent, and Nasdaq up 0.60 percent.
European markets closed mixed, while Asian markets continued to trade lower, led by declines in software and semiconductor stocks. South Korea fell 1.50 percent, Australia slipped 0.25 percent, while Hong Kong and China opened about 0.60 percent lower. Japan’s Nikkei was marginally down.
Gold briefly crossed $5,000 an ounce before retreating on profit booking. Prices touched $5,092.70 before closing at $4,965.80. In early trade today, gold rose to $5,020, slipped to $4,955, and later recovered to $4,982.
Silver climbed to $92.32 before closing at $88.32, marking a gain of 3.58 percent.
In Kerala, 22-carat gold rose by ₹4,040 per sovereign to ₹1,16,920. On MCX, 24-carat gold (10 grams) closed at ₹1,53,390 after touching ₹1,60,755. Silver ended at ₹2,70,549 per kg after hitting ₹2.91 lakh.
The dollar index rose to 97.62 overnight and edged up to 97.65 this morning. The euro slipped to 1.1802 and the pound to 1.3641 against the dollar. The yen weakened to 156.92 per dollar.
The rupee depreciated by 17 paise to close at 90.44 per dollar. In offshore trade, the dollar remained near the same level.
Brent crude closed 2 percent higher at $68.67 per barrel but slipped slightly this morning. WTI was trading at $64.26, while Murban crude stood at $70.25. Natural gas prices rose to $3.45.
Cryptocurrencies remained volatile:
Bitcoin fell below $72,300
Ether dropped under $2,150
Solana slipped below $92
Sensex: 83,817.69 (+0.09%)
Nifty 50: 25,776.00 (+0.19%)
Bank Nifty: 60,238.15 (+0.33%)
Midcap 100: 59,683.60 (+0.63%)
Smallcap 100: 17,205.10 (+1.27%)
Dow Jones: 49,501.30 (+0.53%)
S&P 500: 6,882.72 (–0.51%)
Nasdaq: 22,904.58 (–1.51%)
Dollar: ₹90.44 (+0.17)
Gold (oz): $4,965.80 (+$18.00)
Gold (sovereign): ₹1,16,920 (+₹4,040)
Brent crude: $68.67 (+$0.72)
