Indian shares pause after US trade-deal rally; IT stocks weigh

Feb 4, 2026, 12:06 GMT+7
By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
Reuters - India's equity benchmarks were little changed on Wednesday, a day after recording their best session in nine months following the announcement of the U.S.-India trade deal, as a broad gains were offset by decline in IT stocks amid a global tech selloff.
The Nifty 50was up 0.07% to 25,746.40, while the BSE Sensexshed 0.07% to 83,678.09, as of 10:27 a.m. IST.
The broader small-capsand mid-capsrose 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively.
Fifteen of the 16 major sectors advanced. IT sharesfell 6%.
U.S. and European data analytics, professional services and software stocks dropped after AI firm Anthropic launched workplace productivity tools, raising concerns of disruption across the sector. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Compositelost 1.43% overnight.
The IT selloff is capping gains from optimism over a U.S.-India trade deal, analysts said, noting that Anthropic's tools threaten traditional outsourcing models.
The energy indexgained 2%, as Reliance Industriesshares extended their rally after a 6.6% jump over the last two sessions.
Upstream oil companies such as ONGC and Oil Indiaadded 4% each, tracking a rise in crude oil prices on escalating Middle East tensions.
Auto, metalgained 2% each, while most export-linked companies in auto ancillaries, textiles, apparel, jewellery, pharma, seafood, engineering goods, renewables extended gains on U.S.-India trade deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the trade deal on Monday to cut tariffs to 18% from 50% in exchange for New Delhi halting Russian oil purchases and lowering trade barriers.
India's Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said late on Tuesday the two nations would share details after a "final understanding" of the deal was signed.
"Markets are finding support short-term on de-escalation, easing U.S. tariffs fears that had rattled sentiment, but sustainability of the rise hinges on details of the trade deal," said Dhananjay Sinha, chief executive officer and co-head of institutional equities at Systematix Corporate Services.
Among individual stocks, mattresses maker Sheela Foamjumped 16% on reporting nearly three-fold year-on-year rise in quarterly profit.

Sumber : Reuters