SENSEX rises over 400 points, NIFTY50 reclaims 22,750 led by gains in IT shares

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Friday, October 23, powered by gains in information technology heavyweights. The SENSEX rose as much as 517 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 22,787 led by gains in Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro and HCL Technologies.

As of 9:22 am, the SENSEX was up 291 points at 73,540 and NIFTY50 index advanced 38 points to 22,726.

Asian markets were trading lower tracking a surge in crude prices and a selloff in technology shares. Japan's Nikkei dropped 2%, China's Shanghai Composite fell 2.13%, Hing Kong's Hang Seng index slipped 0.45% and South Korea's KOSPI fell 2.5%.

Overnight, US shares ended lower on Thursday dragged down by a selloff in artificial-intelligence stocks while oil surged to its highest level since May.

AI-related stocks have been swinging on worries that their boom may be under threat because of how expensive it’s become to borrow money to build data centres and buy more AI chips. Concerns also remain that their prices shot too high following a yearslong frenzy, even though companies in the industry continue to report growth, news agency AP reported.

Brent crude futures surged as much as 1.35% to a fresh 5-month high of $114.7 per barrel due to concern of further energy supply disruption after Houthi attacks ‌on top exporter Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Aramco on Thursday ordered the evacuation of its headquarters in Dhahran on the Gulf near Bahrain, Reuters reported, as fighting intensified between the world's largest crude exporter and Yemen-based Houthis.

Clashes between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen's internationally recognised government have raged since the Iran-aligned Houthis pushed towards Bab el-Mandeb, a shipping chokepoint at the mouth of ‌the ⁠Red Sea.

All major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), barring the measure of IT shares, were trading lower led by the NIFTY Metal index's over 1% fall. NIFTY Consumer Durables, PSU Bank, Media, Auto, Bank and Financial Services indices also declined between 0.2% and 1%.

On the other hand, IT shares were witnessing buying interest as anti AI trade played out following a sharp selloff in AI related shares overnight. The NIFTY IT index jumped over 2%.

Broader markets were witnessing intense selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index dropped 0.83% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index plunged 1.25%.

Among the individual shares, Swiggy dropped 10% to an intraday low of ₹190 after its net loss narrowed to ₹992 crore at the end of September quarter from ₹1,092 crore a year earlier.

However, sequentially, the company’s loss expanded from ₹791 crore in the first quarter of FY27, according to a regulatory filing.

Its revenue from operations surged 36.14% YoY to ₹7,571 crore during the quarter under review, compared with ₹5,561 crore in the July-September quarter of the 2025-26 fiscal year (Q2 FY26).

Hindalco was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 1.94% to ₹868. Tata Steel, Eicher Motors, Adani Enterprises, Titan, Tata Motors PV, HDFC Life, Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, Coal India, Power Grid and Jio Financial Services also fell between 1% and 1.8%.

On the flip side, TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Apollo Hospitals, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries and Tata Consumer Products were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,446 shares were falling while 609 were advancing on the NSE.