Mumbai: Indian benchmark indices remained under pressure on Tuesday, May 12, with the Sensex and Nifty50 falling sharply during afternoon trade.
The BSE Sensex plunged more than 1,000 points to 74,978, while the NSE Nifty50 slipped over 290 points to 23,523 during the session.
Rising crude oil prices, weakness in the rupee, and selling in IT and realty stocks weighed heavily on market sentiment.
IT Stocks Witness Heavy Selling
The NIFTY IT index dropped nearly 4 percent, with all major IT companies trading in the red.
Shares of TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra declined sharply after OpenAI announced the launch of “OpenAI Deployment Company”.
The new company will help businesses build and deploy AI systems for daily operations. Investors fear that such AI-driven services could reduce dependence on traditional outsourcing models used by Indian IT firms.
Midcap IT companies such as Coforge, Persistent Systems and Mphasis also saw sharp declines.
Oil Marketing Companies Under Pressure
Shares of state-run oil marketing companies like IOC, BPCL and HPCL fell amid concerns over rising crude oil prices and pressure on fuel marketing margins.
Reports suggested that state-run fuel retailers may face heavy losses in the first quarter because fuel prices have not increased despite higher global crude prices.
However, upstream oil companies like ONGC and Oil India traded positively after the government reduced royalty rates on crude oil and natural gas production to encourage domestic exploration.
JSW Energy, UPL And Aurionpro Decline
JSW Energy shares tumbled 8 percent after the company reported a 9 percent fall in fourth-quarter profit due to rising fuel and financing costs.
UPL stock also dropped over 4 percent despite reporting higher quarterly profit, as analysts remained concerned over margins and earnings performance.
Aurionpro Solutions declined more than 10 percent after reporting lower EBITDA margins for the March quarter.
Groww Shares Fall After Lock-In Expiry
Shares of Groww’s parent company, Billionbrains Garage Ventures, fell nearly 7 percent after the expiry of its six-month shareholder lock-in period.
Reports also suggested that early investors may sell stakes through block deals, adding further pressure on the stock.