Benchmark indices opened cautiously on Wednesday morning after the previous session’s strong rally, with IT stocks dragging following a sharp selloff in technology shares on Wall Street amid concerns over artificial intelligence competition.
The Sensex opened at ₹83,252.06 against the previous close of ₹83,739.13 and was trading at ₹83,868.64, up 129.51 points or 0.15 per cent at 9.45 am. The Nifty opened at ₹25,675.05 compared to the previous close of ₹25,727.55 and was trading at ₹25,790.35, up 62.80 points or 0.24 per cent.
“AI Anxiety Hits Wall Street: Wall Street ended sharply lower on Tuesday as investors worried that AI could create more competition for software makers, keeping them on edge ahead of quarterly reports from Alphabet and Amazon later this week,” said Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research, HDFC Securities. “The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.4 per cent as software stocks extended losses, Anthropic’s launch of workplace productivity tools intensified worries, with the sector shedding approximately $300 billion in market value.”
IT stocks bore the brunt of the selloff with Infosys falling 5.97 per cent to ₹1,557.10, TCS declining 5.23 per cent to ₹3,056.60, HCL Technologies down 4.63 per cent at ₹1,616.80, Tech Mahindra losing 4.37 per cent to ₹1,641.50, and wipro dropping 3.70 per cent to ₹233.70.
Among the gainers, ONGC led with a surge of 4.01 per cent to ₹267.30, Coal India rose 2.34 per cent to ₹439.45, Mahindra & Mahindra gained 2.28 per cent to ₹3,608.20, NTPC advanced 2.22 per cent to ₹366.50, and Jio Financial Services climbed 1.99 per cent to ₹269.15.
“The rally fueled by the US-India trade deal will face hurdles to sustain. The IT selloff in the US yesterday will drag the Indian IT index, too, constraining the rally in the Indian market,” said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited. “Since valuations continue to be high there is no fundamental support for a sustained rally.”
On Tuesday, benchmark indices witnessed a strong rally with the Nifty ending 639 points higher at 25,727 while the Sensex surged 2,073 points to close at 83,729, driven by optimism over the India-US trade deal.
“Indian equity markets continue to draw support from positive progress in India–US trade discussions, which remains the key sentiment driver,” said Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money. “After the strong multi-day rally, some profit-booking and range-bound action cannot be ruled out.”
Shrikant Chouhan, Head – Equity Research at Kotak Securities, noted that “the short-term market outlook remains positive, but a strategy of buying on dips and selling on rallies would be ideal for traders.”
On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors turned net buyers on February 3, purchasing equities worth ₹5,236 crore after remaining net sellers for the previous two sessions. Domestic institutional investors extended their buying streak for a second consecutive day, investing over ₹1,000 crore.
Crude oil Futures traded higher on Wednesday morning as tensions re-emerged between the US and Iran. February crude oil futures were trading at ₹5,785 on Multi Commodity Exchange against the previous close of ₹5,709, up by 1.33 per cent, and March futures were trading at ₹5,770 against the previous close of ₹5,696, up by 1.30 per cent.
“Given persistent global uncertainties and elevated volatility, traders are advised to remain selective and disciplined, focusing on fundamentally strong stocks during market declines,” said Aakash Shah, Technical Research Analyst at Choice Equity Broking Private Limited.
Published on February 4, 2026