INDIA STOCKS-Indian shares little changed on US recession fears, IT stocks slide

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
(Adds opening levels) BENGALURU, April 13 (Reuters) - Indian shares were little changed on Thursday, dragged by IT stocks after weak quarterly earnings and a cautious outlook from top IT firm TCS , and on rising concerns of a "mild recession" in the U.S.


The Nifty 50 fell 0.02% at 17,809.10, as of 9:54 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.04% to 60,364.22. Seven of the 13 major sectoral indexes declined.


The high-weightage IT lost more than 1%, with nine of the 10 firms in the index logging losses. TCS and Infosys fell more than 1.5% each.


The fall in IT stocks comes after TCS flagged concerns of deferred spending and near-term uncertainty in its banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment. TCS reported nearly 15% year-on-year growth in net profit in the March quarter, topping estimates. Infosys will report its Q4 earnings on Thursday.


Analysts said unexpected weakness in the BFSI segment in the U.S. weighed on TCS' results. "Outlook is clouded by client caution driving cuts to discretionary tech spends," according to JP Morgan.


The U.S. Federal Reserve's projection of a mild recession later this year added to concerns about clients' spending cuts in the IT sector and weighed on sentiment. Among other stocks, AU Small Finance Bank jumped 10% on the Reserve Bank of India's approval for the reappointment of its managing director and CEO.


The Nifty 50 is on course to rise for the third week in a row, adding more than 1% so far this week. Indian markets will be closed on Friday for a local holiday.


($1 = 82.0400 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Janane Venkatraman)

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