AI panic hits Dalal Street! IT giants tumble 6%, Sensex crashes 700 points

Shares of Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and Persistent Systems declined as much as 6% in morning trading.

The heavy selling comes amid growing concerns over disruption in the IT sector due to rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Some market experts believe the decline is temporary and have advised investors not to panic.

Kranti Bathini, Equity Strategist at WealthMills Securities, told Business Today that Indian IT companies are going through turbulent times.

“All the bellwether and midcap IT companies are witnessing profit booking at this point, with declines seen in the medium to short term. US markets, including the NASDAQ Composite, are also in a corrective phase right now,” he said.

Bathini added that Indian IT firms must transform and adopt emerging technologies to stay competitive in the evolving global tech landscape.

Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks nosedived, with the BSE Sensex plunging over 700 points to slip below the 83,000 mark, while the NSE Nifty 50 dropped more than 200 points in a broad-based selloff.

Among major laggards, Muthoot Finance tanked over 11% in morning trade, emerging as one of the biggest losers in the Nifty 500 pack alongside Birlasoft, CRISIL, and Praj Industries.

The Nifty IT index staged a partial recovery, rebounding nearly 1,000 points from the day’s lows to limit losses to under 2%. Tracking the rebound, Mphasis turned positive in intraday trade.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries also slipped around 2%, adding pressure on benchmark indices.