The sharp resilience comes after the Indian Rupee slumped 69 paise to an all-time low of 92.18 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday, as a sharp spike in crude oil prices amid Middle East tensions. A falling rupee is a fundamental positive for Indian IT companies because most of their revenue is earned in foreign currencies, primarily in US dollars, while a large portion of their cost is in rupees.
The rebound also follows deeply oversold conditions after IT stocks witnessed a sharp correction last month. The Nifty IT index tumbled around 20% in February, marking its steepest monthly decline since the global financial crisis in 2008.
The selloff came after Anthropic introduced plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent, which can automate tasks across functions such as legal, sales, marketing and data analysis, triggering concerns around the impact of AI-led automation on the IT services space.
What’s happening today?
Indian stock markets opened sharply lower on Wednesday, with Sensex and Nifty falling around 2% each to extend a sharp decline as escalating war between Iran and Israel-US, soaring crude oil prices, strong FII selling and other factors weighed in.
Sensex tumbled 1,710 points to open at 78,528.82, while the Nifty 50 declined nearly 477 points to open at 24,388.80. The sharp decline wiped off around Rs 7.93 lakh crore from the total market capitalisation of all companies listed on BSE, dragging it down to nearly Rs 449 lakh crore.
Brent crude surged more than $1 per barrel, rising 1.4% to $82.53 after closing at its highest since January 2025 on Tuesday. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 79 cents or 1.1% to $75.37, after settling at its highest level since June. Oil prices shot up as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz came to a halt amid repeated attacks on ships in the area. More than 20% of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
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