Indian benchmark shares fall as IT drags, trade worries weigh

Indian equity benchmarks fell on Monday as IT stocks dragged and concerns over additional U.S. tariffs weighed, while positive business updates that reinforced expectations of better quarterly earnings capped some losses.

The Nifty 50 rose as much as 0.17% to a record high of 26,373.20 during the session before reversing gains. It settled 0.30% lower at 26,250.3. The Sensex declined 0.38% to 85,439.62.

Both benchmarks had gained about 1.5% each in the last three sessions, with Nifty scaling new peaks.

Asian stocks climbed and oil prices fell as investors assessed the implications of U.S. military action in Venezuela.

Read more: India’s Nifty 50 hits record high as investors bet on earnings growth recovery

Back home, ten of the 16 major sectors declined. IT firms, which earn a significant share of revenue from the U.S., fell 1.4% ahead of their quarterly results scheduled from next week. Recovery in the IT sector will likely be slow and uneven, according to Citi Research.

HCLTech lost 2.2% and Tech Mahindra shed about 1% each after CLSA downgraded the stocks.

Meanwhile, trade worries intensified after U.S. President Donald Trump said tariffs on India could be raised if New Delhi did not meet Washington’s demand to curb purchases of Russian oil.

The U.S. has already imposed a tariffs of up to 50% on India, with half of that brought in as a punitive measure over New Delhi’s Russian crude imports.

The broader small-caps rose 0.5%, while mid-caps fell 0.2%.

Market sentiment remained guarded, as participants largely stayed on the sidelines amid escalating geopolitical tensions after the U.S. strike on Venezuela over the weekend, according to domestic brokerage Ashika Institutional Equities

The heaviest stock on the benchmarks, HDFC Bank lost 2.4% after its business update for the December quarter showed loans grew faster than deposits.

“Given the current deposit mobilisation trends, we believe there is a downside risk to our deposit growth estimates,” said analysts at Macquarie.

Real estate developer Sobha rose 5.8% and CSB Bank climbed 15.4% after robust quarterly updates.