Indian Shares Tumble As HCL Tech Q4 Results Disappoint

(RTTNews) - Indian shares fell sharply on Wednesday, with stalled U.S.-Iran peace talks, somewhat hawkish comments from Federal Reserve nominee Kevin Warsh at a Senate confirmation hearing, and a disappointing set of numbers for the fourth quarter from IT major HCL Technologies weighing on sentiment.

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a unilateral indefinite extension to a two-week ceasefire until Tehran submitted a "unified proposal" and "discussions are concluded one way or the other."

Trump also said he would keep the naval blockade in place, which Iran's leaders have called an act of war.

The Trump administration has imposed new sanctions on Iran-linked networks, halted U.S. dollar shipments to Iraq and frozen security cooperation programs with its military.

Iran dismissed Trump's ceasefire extension as "meaningless" and said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports is lifted.

While the ceasefire extension helped ease fears of an inflation spike and prolonged high interest rates, concerns grew that the Middle East conflict could drag on.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve chief nominee Kevin Wash on Tuesday told senators he had made no promises to President Trump about cutting interest rates.

He stressed Fed independence, assuring he would act independently of the White House while pursuing broad reforms.

Trump had only hours before told CNBC he would be disappointed if Warsh did not move quickly to lower borrowing costs.

On the earnings front, HCL Technologies delivered weak Q4 results and issued cautious FY27 revenue guidance, sending IT stocks crashing.

While HCL Tech shares plummeted nearly 11 percent, peers Tech Mahindra, TCS and Infosys all fell around 3 percent.

Among other prominent decliners, Mahindra & Mahindra lost 3 percent while ITC, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank all fell more than 1 percent on concerns about the Middle East war.

The benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled 756.84 points, or 0.95 percent, to 78,516.49, while the broader NSE Nifty index settled 198.50 points, or 0.81 percent, lower at 24,378.10.

The mid-cap and small-cap indexes on the BSE edged up by 0.3 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,455 shares rising while 1,819 shares declined and 148 shares closed unchanged.