IT Stocks Plunge: TCS, HCL Tech Down Over 3%

New Delhi, Sep 18 (PTI) IT stocks faced heavy selling on Wednesday, with frontline firms like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Tech falling over 3 per cent each, dragging the equity markets lower.

Among blue-chip stocks Tata Consultancy Services fell 3.49 per cent, followed by HCL Technologies, which declined 3.15 per cent on the BSE.

Also, Infosys dropped 3.09 per cent, Tech Mahindra (2.79 per cent), and Wipro (2.64 per cent).

Among other stocks, Oracle Financial Services Software tumbled 8.31 per cent, Mphasis (5.37 per cent), Cyient (3.78 per cent) and L&T Technology Services (3.33 per cent).

The BSE IT index dropped 3 per cent to 42,645.20.

"Investors turned cautious ahead of the US Fed policy rate meeting later in the day, as domestic benchmark indices faltered in late trade after scaling fresh highs in early trades due to heavy profit-taking in technology stocks," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Both benchmark equity indices hit all-time high levels in intra-day trade. Later, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 131.43 points, or 0.16 per cent, to settle at 82,948.23. The NSE Nifty also declined 41 points, or 0.16 per cent, to close at 25,377.55.

Devarsh Vakil, Deputy Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities, said, "The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the US Federal Reserve will conclude its two-day meeting today. Fed chair Jerome Powell-led rate-setting panel is most likely to cut the rates by a quarter percentage points, however, talks of a 50 bps rate cut are also doing the rounds.