Indian equity benchmarks, BSE Sensex and Nifty50, snapped their five-session winning streak on Friday, as a sharp selloff in technology stocks weighed on sentiment. Fresh geopolitical concerns also added to the cautious mood in the market.
Market Performance
The BSE Sensex, comprising 30 stocks, ended the session 607.08 points, or 0.78%, lower at 76,802.90. During intraday trade, the index had fallen as much as 940.26 points, or 1.21%, touching 76,469.72. The NSE Nifty closed down 154.90 points, or 0.64%, at 24,013.10.
The decline came after a strong run in recent sessions. Over the previous five trading days, the Sensex had advanced 3,577.43 points, or 4.84%, while the Nifty had gained 1,006.4 points, or 4.34%.
IT Stocks Lead the Decline
Among Sensex constituents, Infosys emerged as the biggest loser, sliding 6.69%. Tata Consultancy Services fell 3.53%, HCLTech dropped 2.74%, and Tech Mahindra ended 2.45% lower. Reflecting the pressure on technology counters, the BSE IT index declined 3.57% during the session.
The selloff followed a sharp decline in Accenture's stock on Wall Street, where the consulting giant's shares plunged 11% after it revised its FY26 revenue growth forecast to 3-4%, compared with its earlier guidance of 3-5%. The company also projected fourth-quarter revenue in the range of $17.75 billion to $18.4 billion, below analysts' expectations of $18.47 billion, according to LSEG data.
Accenture's weaker outlook appears to have revived concerns that businesses remain cautious about discretionary spending on IT consulting and digital transformation initiatives, despite continued investments in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Given the significant exposure of Indian IT companies to the US market, fears of slower spending by corporate clients likely intensified selling pressure across technology stocks on Dalal Street.
The Nifty IT index dropped to 26,634.50 during the session, marking its weakest level since April 2023. It emerged as the worst-performing sectoral index of the day. Infosys led the decline with a fall of nearly 9%, while TCS, Mphasis, LTIMindtree, Tech Mahindra, Persistent Systems and HCLTech registered losses ranging between 4% and 6%.
HDFC Bank and Reliance Also Drag
But IT stocks were not the only ones that dragged down the indices. Heavyweights HDFC Bank and Reliance also dropped, pulling down both Sensex and Nifty. HDFC Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries and Hindustan Unilever were also among the stocks that closed in negative territory.
HDFC Bank in Focus
HDFC Bank shares dropped more than 2% after the stock began trading ex-dividend for its final dividend of Rs 13 per share. The stock fell 2.25% to close at Rs 781, compared with its previous closing price of Rs 799. Adjusted for the dividend payout, the correction was relatively mild and followed a gain of nearly 1.5% in the last session.
The bank's shares turned ex-dividend on June 19 in relation to the final dividend of Rs 13 per share declared for FY26. Under the T+1 settlement framework, investors were required to hold the stock before the ex-dividend date to qualify for the dividend. Consequently, the share price adjusted downward reflects the distribution.
Shares of HDFC Bank were also in focus after the bank announced that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved a three-month extension of Keki Mistry's tenure as interim part-time chairman, easing speculation about an immediate appointment to the position.
Reliance Industries Share Price Drops
At the 49th AGM of Reliance Industries, chairman Mukesh Ambani laid out the future roadmap of the conglomerate. He also announced Reliance Jio Platforms’ IPO, for which the draft red herring prospectus will be filed with SEBI later today.
Shares of RIL closed the day at Rs 1,311.50 on the National Stock Exchange, down Rs 16.60 or 1.25%. Since Reliance is an index heavyweight, it played a role in dragging down the benchmarks.
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