Mumbai’s stock market closed sharply lower on Thursday, dragged down by heavy selling in IT stocks. The Sensex shed 558.72 points, or 0.66%, to end at 83,674.92, while the Nifty fell 146.65 points, or 0.57%, settling at 25,807.20.
The Nifty IT index bore the brunt of the decline, plunging 5.51%. Major IT heavyweights like Coforge tumbled 6.50%, Oracle Financial Services Software dropped 6.28%, Tech Mahindra lost 5.98%, Infosys declined 5.84%, LTI Mindtree fell 5.51%, and TCS slipped 5.49%.
Other sectors also faced pressure. Nifty Realty declined 1.45%, Nifty Media 1.31%, Nifty Oil & Gas 1.19%, Nifty Services 0.68%, Nifty Energy 0.56%, and Nifty FMCG 0.51%.
On a positive note, Nifty India Defence rose 0.73%, Nifty Consumer Durables gained 0.40%, and Nifty Financial Services edged up 0.38%.
Broad-based selling hit largecaps, midcaps, and smallcaps alike. The Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 283.70 points or 0.47% to 60,470.85, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 dropped 110.90 points or 0.64% to 17,344.10.
In the Sensex pack, gainers included Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Trent, BEL, SBI, Titan, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, L&T, Bharti Airtel, and Tata Steel. Losers were led by Tech Mahindra, Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech, M&M, HUL, Eternal, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, noted that the indices opened weak and remained under pressure throughout the session. The Nifty traded in a narrow range between 25,750 and 25,850.
Despite the downturn, the index held above its 20-day moving average. In an uptrend, 26,000 could act as resistance, while 25,750-25,500 forms a key support zone, De added.
This IT-led selloff underscores ongoing concerns in the sector amid global uncertainties, though select defensive pockets showed resilience. Investors will watch upcoming earnings and macroeconomic cues closely for direction.