The IT shares extended their gains for a second straight session on Thursday, outperforming a volatile broader market.

The Sensex and Nifty moved sharply in both directions throughout the day, but IT stocks held firm.

The Nifty IT index rose around 1.5 percent in afternoon trade, after closing more than 1 percent higher on Wednesday.

The index is up over 2 percent in the two sessions.

All 10 constituents of the Nifty IT index were trading in positive territory. Coforge led the pack, gaining 3.19 percent

around 1:30 p.m., followed by Persistent Systems, which was up 1.96 percent.

TCS shares were quoting at Rs 3,230.40 per share on the NSE, up 1.58 percent - the higest in about 3 months. The sharp

uptick was seen after ET reported that OpenAI is in advanced talks with the company to establish a large-scale AI

compute presence in India and co-develop agentic AI products for enterprises.

Mphasis, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Infosys also advanced, rising up to 2 percent.

3 Key Factors behind Rise in IT Sector

1) Weakening rupee: The rupee declined 28 paise to a record low of 90.43 against the US dollar in early trade. The

domestic currency opened at 90.36 and slipped further amid sustained foreign fund outflows. A weaker rupee typically

benefits IT exporters, which earn a large share of their revenue in dollars. The depreciation boosts their reported

earnings and margins in rupee terms.

2) Expectations of a US rate cut: Fresh US economic data kept hopes alive for a Federal Reserve rate cut next week.

Lower rates in the US tend to support economic activity and corporate spending, including technology budgets. Improved

client spending in the world’s largest IT market generally benefits Indian IT services companies.

Sensex falls 400 pts from day's high, Nifty below 26,000: 5 key reasons behind market decline

3) Positive brokerage commentary: Motilal Oswal said the IT services sector could be nearing an inflection point, with

stronger growth expected over the next 6–9 months. The brokerage projected a pickup in the second half of FY27 and

broader adoption through FY28 as enterprises move from pilot projects to full-scale deployment. It added that sector

valuations remain at decade lows despite stable profitability, reported Informist.

Last week, the firm upgraded Infosys to “buy” from “neutral”, citing its potential to benefit from enterprise AI

spending. Mphasis and Zensar were also raised to “buy”, while Wipro was revised to “neutral” from “sell”.

The brokerage expects IT services growth to stabilise and strengthen by FY28 as cloud spending normalises. The IT

sub-index remains down 12.7 percent year-to-date, compared with the Nifty 50’s performance.