Mumbai, Feb 13: Domestic markets opened with sharp losses on Friday. Negative signals from international markets and fears around artificial intelligence dragged down Indian indices. Continuing Thursday’s decline, IT stocks fell heavily in today’s trading.
At 9:33 a.m., the Sensex dropped 760 points to 82,906, while the Nifty fell 245 points to 25,561. The rupee weakened by 8 paise against the dollar, trading at 90.69.
On the Nifty index, SBI Life Insurance, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, SBI, and HDFC Life shares were in gains, while Infosys, TCS, Hindalco, HCL Technologies, and Wipro were in losses.
On Thursday, U.S. markets closed lower. Concerns over artificial intelligence triggered selling, with the Nasdaq plunging nearly 2%. Investors remained cautious ahead of fresh job data and the upcoming January inflation report.
Fears around AI firm Anthropic continued to weigh on IT stocks. Additionally, U.S. jobs data impacted sentiment. Analysts noted that if the Federal Reserve does not cut interest rates, American companies may reduce spending, leading to fewer orders for Indian IT firms.
As a result, Indian IT stocks have declined for the third consecutive session, down about 5.5% overall. Asian markets also traded in losses.
