SENSEX drops 500 points, NIFTY50 below 24,450 dragged down by IT shares

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading sharply lower on Wednesday, April 22, as investor sentiment turned cautious after United States and Iran failed to hold talks for a peace agreement in West Asia. The SENSEX fell as much as 574 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,427 dragged down by losses in information technology heavyweights like HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra.

As of 9:33 am, the SENSEX was down 478 points at 78,795 and NIFTY50 index declined 131 points to 24,445.

Asian markets were trading on a mixed note after President Donald Trump said Tuesday the United States was indefinitely extending its ceasefire with Iran — a day before it was to expire — as a new round of peace talks was on hold.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.5%, South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.2% and China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.1%.

Back home, seven of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY IT index's 3% fall. IT stocks came under selling pressure after the country's third largest IT company HCL Technologies flagged a highly volatile demand environment shadowed by tariffs and softened discretionary spending.

NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, Pharma, Healthcare, Private Bank and Auto indices were also trading with a negative bias.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a mixed note as NIFTY Midcap 100 index was trading on a flat note while NIFTY Smallcap 100 index surged 0.7%.

HCL Tech was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock dropped as much as 9.72% to ₹1,301 after its March quarter earnings and future guidance disappointed investors.

The company reported a 4.20% year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit to ₹4,488 crore for the January-March quarter of FY26 (Q3 FY26), even as the management flagged a highly volatile demand environment shadowed by tariffs and softened discretionary spends, giving an FY27 growth guidance of 1-4%.

The IT major projected its FY27 company revenue growth to be in the range of 1% to 4% in constant currency (CC). The company attributed the broad band of guidance to market volatility, reduced discretionary spend, and two client-specific situations where it expects some ramp-downs

Infosys, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharat Electronics, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, Eicher Motors and Kotak Mahindra Bank also fell between 0.9% and 2.4%.

On the flip side, Nestle India, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Motors PV, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco and Adani Enterprises were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,548 shares were advancing while 1,318 were declining on the NSE.