Nifty IT Index Jumps 3.3% as HCL Tech Second Quarter Profit Surges 21% to Rs 5,132 Crore

Indian information technology stocks witnessed aggressive buying on Tuesday, driving the benchmark Nifty IT index up 3.3% in intraday trade. The sectoral surge was spearheaded by strong July-September quarter (Q2 FY27) earnings from HCL Technologies, which followed forecast-beating numbers from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) late last week to bolster investor confidence in the broader tech landscape.

Within early trade, the Nifty IT index added roughly 950 points, emerging as the top-performing sectoral index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and outperforming the broader Nifty 50.

HCL Tech Earnings Exceed Street Expectations

HCL Technologies reported a 21.18% year-on-year jump in consolidated net profit attributable to owners to ₹5,132 crore for the second quarter, up from ₹4,235 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Consolidated revenue from operations increased 11.5% year-on-year to ₹35,620 crore, supported by broad-based momentum across IT and business services.

Operational metrics also improved noticeably during the quarter:

• Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margin expanded by 131 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 18.2%.
• Revenue from Advanced Artificial Intelligence operations surged 78% year-on-year and 28.4% sequentially in constant currency terms, reaching $219 million ($876 million annualized).
• Total new contract bookings stood at $3.3 billion, marking a 27% increase over the previous year.
• The company narrowed its full-year constant-currency revenue growth projection to 2.5%–4.0%, up from an earlier band of 1.0%–4.0%.
• The board approved an interim dividend of ₹12 per equity share with a record date of October 16.

In response to the numbers, HCL Technologies shares rallied as much as 5% on the NSE.

Sectoral Heavyweights Join the Rally

The upbeat sentiment lifted the entire IT pack. TCS shares surged as much as 5% to 7%, extending gains after its own robust Q2 showing where net profit rose 14.9% year-on-year to ₹13,884 crore. Other large and mid-tier software exporters also gained substantial ground:

• Tech Mahindra and Wipro advanced over 3% each.
• Infosys rose 2.7%.
• Mid-tier IT companies including Mphasis, Persistent Systems, Coforge, and LTIMindtree gained between 2% and 4%.

Decoupling From the Global AI Downturn

The rally across Dalal Street's IT counters stood in stark contrast to overnight developments across global technology markets. Semiconductor and capital-intensive technology stocks in the United States and Asia faced downward pressure following warnings from Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan that soaring financing costs and access to capital could constrain the enterprise AI buildout. Market sentiment was further dampened by reports that OpenAI's annualized revenue run rate of approximately $50 billion fell short of earlier informal benchmarks.

While global concerns center on the sustainability of heavy capital expenditure in hardware and data center infrastructure, Indian IT vendors are benefiting from an enterprise implementation phase. Commentary from domestic IT leaders indicated that multinational clients are actively contracting services to integrate artificial intelligence, modernize cloud architectures, and optimize legacy workloads, providing domestic software exporters with measurable demand and margin defense.

Tags: Nifty IT HCL Technologies Tata Consultancy Services Infosys NSE IT Sector