Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, Feb 18: Shares of Indian IT companies snapped a two-session gaining streak on Tuesday, dragging the Nifty IT index down nearly 2.5 per cent in morning trade, amid a global selloff in technology stocks following the launch of a new AI model by US-based startup Anthropic.
The Nifty IT index slipped to 32,265.20 around 10.05 am, with frontline and mid-tier IT stocks witnessing broad-based declines.
Among the top losers was Persistent Systems, which fell over 3 per cent. Heavyweight Infosys declined nearly 3 per cent, while Coforge, Tech Mahindra and LTIMindtree dropped around 3 per cent each.
Shares of HCL Technologies, Wipro and Mphasis declined over 2 per cent, while industry bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) fell nearly 2 per cent.
The decline followed Anthropic’s introduction of Claude Sonnet 4.6, which the company described as its most capable Sonnet model to date. The AI startup said the model brings upgrades across coding, computer use, long-context reasoning, agent planning, knowledge work and design.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 will now become the default model on claude.ai and Claude Cowork for free and paid users, with pricing unchanged from the previous version.
The announcement rekindled concerns about AI-led disruption in the IT services sector, particularly around application development and maintenance (ADM) and the relevance of traditional software services.
After the launch, global tech stocks also came under pressure. Shares of Cognizant fell 2.06 per cent, while Accenture declined 1.94 per cent.
According to Reuters, analysts at NAB said AI-related uncertainty remains a key source of volatility, as investors struggle to assess which companies will emerge as winners or losers and how AI will reshape broader sectors of the economy.
The sharp swings come a day after IT stocks had rallied on news of a strategic partnership between Infosys and Anthropic. Under the collaboration, Infosys will integrate Anthropic’s Claude models, including Claude Code, with its Topaz AI offerings, and set up a dedicated Anthropic Center of Excellence to develop AI agents for industry-specific use cases.
Anthropic CEO and Co-founder Dario Amodei said bridging the gap between AI demos and deployment in regulated industries requires strong domain expertise, adding that Infosys possesses such capabilities across telecom, financial services and manufacturing.
At the Infosys Investor AI Day, Chairman Nandan Nilekani sought to allay investor concerns, stating that artificial intelligence is fundamentally positive for companies like Infosys and should not be seen as an opportunity gap.
The IT index had already lost 8.2 per cent last week, marking its worst weekly performance in 11 months, as concerns mounted over AI intensifying competition for software makers.
Vaqarjaved Khan, Senior Fundamental Analyst at Angel One, said weak sentiment was further amplified by global tech weakness and rupee depreciation, which exacerbated foreign portfolio investor (FPI) outflows.
Brokerage Nomura noted that valuations in the sector have moved into the ‘value’ zone after the recent correction. It added that fears around AI-led disruption, SaaS irrelevance and margin compression may be oversimplifying the role of IT services firms.
Earlier, in a note titled ‘India IT Services: Looking through the AI fog’, JPMorgan’s Asia Pacific Equity Research team argued that AI is likely to create new areas of work rather than simply shrinking opportunities for IT vendors.
“IT firms remain the plumbers of the technology world… It is overly simplistic to assume that AI can automatically generate enterprise-grade software and replace the value IT services firms create across the cycle,” the note stated.