Mumbai, Feb 12, 2026, 13:43 IST
- Sensex down 515.63 points at 83,718.01; Nifty 50 off 132.85 points at 25,821 by 11:39 a.m. IST
- IT shares led losses, with big software names down around 4% to 5%
- Analysts flagged AI disruption worries and fading U.S. rate-cut bets; firmer oil prices added pressure
Indian stocks fell on Thursday, with heavy selling in information technology shares pushing the benchmarks lower. The Sensex was down 515.63 points at 83,718.01 and the Nifty 50 lost 132.85 points to 25,821 as of 11:39 a.m. IST, while VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, said tech stocks were “unlikely to recover soon”. (India Today)
The decline halted a three-day rally and put the spotlight back on a sector that has been dictating Dalal Street’s mood. Big IT exporters sit near the top of both indices, so a slide there rarely stays contained.
Worries about automation resurfaced after Amazon- and Google-backed Anthropic launched its Claude Cowork artificial intelligence tool, aimed at automating tasks across areas such as legal work, sales and marketing. Investors have also pared bets on a near-term U.S. Federal Reserve rate cut — the Fed is the U.S. central bank — after stronger jobs data cooled expectations. (Reuters)
IT shares led the fall, with Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services down around 4% to 5% in late morning trade. Banks held up better, leaving the session feeling more like rotation than panic.
After losing 12.6% in 2025, the IT index is down about 11% so far this year, feeding worries that new AI tools could bite into the earnings of software services firms. “It’s a mix of knee-jerk reaction and concerns over real threat to IT,” said Vinit Bolinjkar, head of research at Ventura Securities. (Moneycontrol)
Oil also sat in the background. Brent crude rose 0.46% to $69.72 a barrel on concerns about rising U.S.-Iran tensions, a move traders often treat as a headwind for India, which imports most of its oil.
Some chart-watchers argued the broader uptrend has not broken yet. Devarsh Vakil at HDFC Securities said “immediate resistance” was near 26,000 on the Nifty, with support seen in the 25,700–25,780 zone.
Traders also pointed to the weekly expiry of Sensex futures and options — derivatives contracts that can amplify short-term swings — as another factor behind choppy moves. In early trade, the Sensex fell as much as 395 points and the Nifty hit an intraday low of 25,836, while Asian markets were mixed and U.S. stocks finished uneven overnight. (Upstox – Online Stock and Share Trading)
Selling was not limited to large caps. Mid- and small-cap indices slipped close to 1%, and India VIX, a gauge of expected volatility, edged higher.
The risk now is that the IT slide turns into a deeper rerating if clients lean harder on automation and rate cuts stay out of reach. A softer U.S. inflation reading or a pullback in oil prices would change the tone quickly, but traders are not betting on it yet.
For now, the market’s story is blunt: IT is dragging the tape. Whether it stops at a one-day selloff or grows into a longer reset depends on what the next global data points — and the next set of company updates — look like.
