Infosys, Persistent Systems, Wipro, other IT stocks fall up to 3% after two days of gains: Here's why

IT stocks fall

• Indian IT stocks fell after Anthropic launched Claude Sonnet 4.6
• Nifty IT index dropped 2.5 percent, led by Persistent Systems
• AI disruption fears and global tech selloff drove volatility

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The shares of Indian IT companies snapped a two-session gaining streak and dropped in trade on February 18. This came after a global tech selloff in software stocks as Anthropic’s launch of Claude Sonnet 4.6 for both free and paying users rekindled worries around AI-led disruption in the sector.

The fall in the share prices pushed the Nifty IT index down nearly 2.5 percent to 32,265.20, as seen at 10.05 am. Persistent Systems shares were the top losers on the index, falling more than 3 percent. Heavyweight Infosys shares followed, declining nearly 3 percent in the morning trading hours.

Coforge, Tech Mahindra and LTI Mindtree shares also dropped nearly 3 percent each, while HCL Technologies, Wipro and Mphasis shares fell over 2 percent each. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) shares fell nearly 2 percent.

Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.6:

Anthropic on Tuesday introduced Claude Sonnet 4.6, calling it its most capable Sonnet model yet. "It’s a full upgrade of the model’s skills across coding, computer use, long-context reasoning, agent planning, knowledge work, and design," the AI startup said.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 will now be the default model in claude.ai and Claude Cowork for all customers on free and pro plans, with pricing remaining the same as Sonnet 4.5, starting at $3/$15 per million tokens.

Anthropic said that Sonnet 4.6 brings much-improved coding skills to more of its users. Improvements in consistency, instruction following, and more have made developers with early access prefer Sonnet 4.6 to its predecessor by a wide margin, it added. “They often even prefer it to our smartest model from November 2025, Claude Opus 4.5,” it said.

“Almost every organization has software it can’t easily automate: specialized systems and tools built before modern interfaces like APIs existed. To have AI use such software, users would previously have had to build bespoke connectors. But a model that can use a computer the way a person does changes that equation,” Anthropic further added.

After the launch, global tech giants tumbled. Cognizant shares dropped 2.06 percent, and Accenture declined 1.94 percent.

"AI uncertainty remains a source of volatility, both in terms of the difficulty in assessing which AI companies will be the winners and losers but also what sort of impact will AI have in other companies and sectors of the economy," NAB analysts said, according to Reuters.

IT stocks seeing volatility:

Earlier yesterday, IT stocks sharply increased as heavyweight Infosys announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic, amid worries around AI-led disruption in the sector. As part of the partnership, the two companies will integrate Anthropic's Claude models, including Claude Code, with Infosys Topaz AI offerings. A dedicated Anthropic Center of Excellence to build and deploy AI agents tailored to industry-specific operations will also be launched.

“There's a big gap between an AI model that works in a demo and one that works in a regulated industry – and if you want to close that gap, you need domain expertise," said Dario Amodei, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Anthropic. He added tha Infosys has that kind of expertise across important industries: telecom, financial services, and manufacturing.

Speaking at Infosys Investor AI Day, Nandan Nilekani addressed the worries around artificial intelligence's impact on IT services firms, which earlier sent the stocks to a tailspin. “In my view is there is no opportunity gap. AI is fundamentally good for companies like Infosys. So, don't get distracted by that,” he said.

The sharp decline in IT stocks began earlier this month amid concerns that artificial intelligence can intensify competition after Anthropic's launch of a legal AI tool for its Claude AI chatbot. Investors remained concerned that AI was creating more competition for software makers. IT index had lost 8.2 percent last week, its worst performance in 11 months.

Vaqarjaved Khan, Senior Fundamental Analyst at Angel One, said that the weak sentiment was amplified by global tech sector weakness and rupee depreciation, exacerbating FPI outflows.

Nomura said that the valuations of these stocks are in the ‘value’ zone, after the strong correction. It noted that the earlier fall was driven by key concerns around AI-led ADM disruption, SaaS irrelevance and margin compression.

The international brokerage however sees these AI-led disruption fears as oversimplifying IT services role.

In an earlier note titled 'India IT Services: Looking through the AI fog', JPMorgan's Asian Pacific Equity Research team argued that artificial intelligence will create new areas of work, instead of simply shrinking the opportunities for IT vendors.

"IT firms remain the plumbers of the technology world…However, it's overly simplistic to assume that AI can automatically generate enterprise grade software and replace the value IT Services firms create across the cycle," it added.

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