Nifty IT Gains More Than 2 Per Cent In Early Trade Despite Trump's Looming Tariff Threat

The Nifty IT index climbed 2.6 per cent to hit an intraday high at 38,248.65 levels on March 5 in early trade. The index surged despite the looming threat of US President Donald Trump imposing reciprocal trade tariffs.

Index heavyweights such as Infosys Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd also traded higher by up to 1.64 per cent. Other Nifty IT constituents such as Coforge Ltd, Persistent Ltd and L&T Technology Services Ltd emerged as top gainers as they traded higher by up to 11 per cent on the NSE.

Shares of Coforge gained 11 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 8,006 apiece on the NSE, shares of Larsen & Toubro gained 3.7 per cent to trade at an intraday high of Rs 4,740 apiece and shares of Persistent Systems Ltd gained 6 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 5462.6 apiece.

On March 4, US President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of the US Congress and defended his tariff policy, reiterating that the US has been facing high tariffs from various countries. Trump singled out India and said that the country charges the US auto tariffs which are higher than 100 per cent.

“India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 per cent,” Trump said.

The US President added that the United States will impose reciprocal tariffs on several nations, starting April 2. Notably increased tariffs are likely to affect business and impact customer sentiment which in turn can potentially increase uncertainty regarding the earnings growth of the Indian IT-enabled service providers which cater to the US market.

Despite Trump’s announcement to impose tariffs the IT stocks continued to trade in the green on March 5. At the time of writing this copy, the Nifty IT index traded higher by 2.64 per cent or 985.35 points at 38,262.3 levels.

Index heavyweights such as Tata Consultancy Services shares traded higher by 1.3 per cent at Rs 3,578 apiece on the NSE, Infosys shares traded higher by 2.4 per cent at Rs 1,722.8 apiece on the NSE and HCL Technology shares traded higher by 2.15 per cent at Rs 1,568.55 apiece on the NSE.