IT Stocks Plunge Amid Recession Fears - PTI

New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) IT stocks, which earn a major part of their revenue from the US, fell sharply on Monday amid fears of a likely recession after tariff hikes by the Trump administration rattled global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex crashed 2,226.79 points or 2.95 per cent to settle at 73,137.90, recording its third day of decline. During the day, the index slumped 3,939.68 points or 5.22 per cent to 71,425.01.

The NSE Nifty tumbled 742.85 points or 3.24 per cent to settle at 22,161.60. Intra-day, the benchmark dropped 1,160.8 points or 5.06 per cent to 21,743.65.

Shares of IT-enabled services firms Onward Technologies Ltd cracked 13.99 per cent and Genesys International Corporation slumped 10.80 per cent on the BSE.

The stock of Quick Heal Technologies tanked 9.63 per cent, Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services lost 9.53 per cent, Datamatics Global Services dropped 9.08 per cent, Newgen Software Technologies (7.94 per cent), Intellect Design Arena (7.69 per cent), Happiest Minds Technologies (6.36 per cent), Sonata Software (6.28 per cent), Tata Technologies (6.19 per cent), and Mphasis Ltd (5.76 per cent).

Among blue-chip stocks, shares of Infosys dropped 3.75 per cent, HCL Technologies declined 3.27 per cent, Tech Mahindra (2.47 per cent), LTIMindtree (1.72 per cent), Wipro (1.38 per cent), and Tata Consultancy Services (0.69 per cent).

The BSE IT index tanked 2.92 per cent while teck lost 2.85 per cent.

"IT index ended with over 2 per cent loss. In just three sessions, the index tumbled over 8 per cent as investors have turned risk-averse amid concerns of a likely recession in the US, India's largest export market for tech services," Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Research, Wealth Management at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said.

US markets ended significantly lower on Friday. The S&P 500 tanked 5.97 per cent, Nasdaq composite slumped 5.82 per cent, and the Dow tumbled 5.50 per cent on Friday.

"The market fall today is clearly the fallout of what is happening in the global markets. The current investor sentiment is one that is characterised by uncertainty and hence fear," Shiv Chanani, Senior Fund Manager - Equity at Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, said.