IT stocks buck sluggish market trend, gain 4% on Re fall

Defying an overall sluggish market sentiment, IT stocks on Wednesday rose by up to 4 per cent amid the rupee sinking to a life low of 68.75 against the dollar.

Shares of IT giant TCS jumped 3.68 per cent to close the day at Rs 1,904.60, while Wipro was up 3.63 per cent to Rs 471.40 and Infosys went up by 2.03 per cent to Rs 3,120.30 on the BSE.

Among others, HCL Tech climbed 3.12 per cent, while Mindtree was up 3.29 per cent, Tech Mahindra (0.73 per cent) and Hexaware Tech (0.47 per cent).

Following the gains in these stocks, the BSE IT index ended the day 2.68 per cent higher at 7,833.51.

Fall in value of the rupee against the US currency is broadly seen as positive for export-focussed sectors like the Indian IT space.

Marketmen said large IT companies benefit from a weaker rupee, as it positively impacts their profit margins.
Big IT companies earn a major chunk of their revenues in dollar from their US clients.

Continuing its free-fall, the rupee sank to 68.75 on heightened capital outflow concerns and worries that fiscal burden will increase due to food security programme. It later pared some losses to trade at 67.9 when stock markets closed.

In the stock market, the benchmark Sensex recovered early losses to close 28.07 points higher at 17,996.15 after falling 519 points in morning trade.