On a Thursday morning in late August 2026, Indian markets prepared to open lower even as the earnings of American technology giants cast a long, hopeful shadow over the subcontinent's IT sector. The tension between headline weakness and underlying opportunity is an old one in financial life — the surface tells one story while the currents beneath move in a different direction entirely. From HDFC Bank's legal troubles in New York to the quiet ambitions of infrastructure builders and the enthusiasm of retail investors chasing copper, the day reminded observers that markets are never one thing at
IT stocks poised to gain as NVIDIA, Salesforce fuel AI optimism; NIFTY50 seen lower
AI spending isn't slowing down, and that matters for Indian IT companies
Mark
So the market's opening down 84 points, but you're saying there's actually good news buried in there?
Mimi
The opening decline is real—that's what the futures are telling us. But NVIDIA and Salesforce just posted numbers that suggest AI spending isn't slowing down. For Indian IT companies that do work for these American tech firms, that's meaningful.
Mark
How meaningful? Are we talking about a reversal of the opening decline, or just a floor under the selling?
Mimi
It's more about the narrative shifting. If American tech companies are still spending heavily on AI infrastructure, Indian IT services firms that help them build and maintain that infrastructure have visibility into their own revenue. That tends to matter to investors.
Mark
What about the HDFC Bank lawsuit? That sounds serious.
Mimi
It is. The allegation is that they routed money through their marketing budget to induce deposits from a state entity. That's a governance question, and it raises questions about disclosure. It's the kind of thing that makes investors nervous about what else might not have been fully disclosed.
Mark
And the share sales—General Atlantic selling out of Rubicon, Capital Group selling Avenue Supermarts—what's that about?
Mimi
Large shareholders taking profits or rebalancing. It's not panic selling, but it does suggest they're seeing better opportunities elsewhere or they've hit their target returns. The fact that they found buyers—domestic and foreign institutional investors—means the market is still functioning normally.
Mark
So what should someone watching this market actually pay attention to today?
Mimi
Watch whether the IT sector actually rallies on the American earnings, or whether the opening weakness just drags everything down. That'll tell you whether the AI optimism is real or just noise.
Le Pouls
- NIFTY50 futures pointed to an 84-point drop at the open, setting a cautious tone even before the first trade was placed.
- NVIDIA's $96.2 billion quarter and Salesforce's 11% revenue growth sent a powerful signal that AI spending remains durable — and Indian IT firms embedded in American tech ecosystems stood directly in the path of that tailwind.
- HDFC Bank's exposure deepened as a US lawsuit alleged the country's largest private lender misled investors about ₹45 crore in payments used to induce deposits from a state entity, raising sharp questions about disclosure and governance.
- Hindustan Copper's offer for sale was oversubscribed 3.41 times on day one, with institutional bids exceeding ₹4,600 crore — the government exercised its full greenshoe option, and retail enthusiasm followed.
- IRB Infrastructure announced a ₹351 crore share acquisition alongside record quarterly renewable energy commissioning, while SBI quietly crossed ₹9 lakh crore in home loans and set its sights on ₹10 lakh crore.
- The session would ultimately test whether the warmth of American earnings could hold against the gravity of a lower open and the legal, regulatory, and capital-flow crosscurrents swirling through India's largest companies.
On a Thursday morning in late August 2026, Indian markets prepared to open lower even as the earnings of American technology giants cast a long, hopeful shadow over the subcontinent's IT sector. The tension between headline weakness and underlying opportunity is an old one in financial life — the surface tells one story while the currents beneath move in a different direction entirely. From HDFC Bank's legal troubles in New York to the quiet ambitions of infrastructure builders and the enthusiasm of retail investors chasing copper, the day reminded observers that markets are never one thing at once, but many human stories unfolding in parallel.
Indian markets were set to open lower on Thursday, with NIFTY50 futures signaling an 84-point decline. But the headline number obscured a more layered reality, as strong American technology earnings arrived just in time to complicate the mood.
NVIDIA reported second-quarter revenue of $96.2 billion — well above expectations — and guided for $108 billion in the quarter ahead, a projection that spoke to the staying power of AI investment. Salesforce added to the optimism, growing revenue 11 percent year-over-year to $11.35 billion and raising its full-year outlook on the strength of its AI products. For Indian IT companies woven into the service and infrastructure ecosystems of American firms, these results were not abstract: sustained corporate spending on cloud, data, and AI tends to flow downstream, and analysts expected the sector to stay in focus.
The domestic picture was more mixed. HDFC Bank found itself named in a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, with plaintiffs alleging the bank made misleading statements and concealed roughly ₹45 crore in payments routed through its marketing budget to induce deposits from a state entity — a disclosure and governance question that investors in India's largest private lender would not easily set aside.
IRB Infrastructure offered a contrasting story of momentum: the company announced plans to acquire up to 5.4 crore additional shares at ₹65 apiece, a ₹351 crore commitment, while also reporting its highest quarterly renewable energy commissioning on record — 601 megawatts across solar and wind, plus 403 megawatt-hours of battery storage. Meanwhile, Hindustan Copper's offer for sale drew institutional bids more than three times the available shares on its first day, prompting the government to exercise its full greenshoe option. Retail investors followed with equal enthusiasm.
Large shareholders were also reshuffling positions across sectors. General Atlantic Singapore trimmed its stake in Rubicon Research in a transaction worth over ₹2,299 crore. Capital Group sold shares in Avenue Supermarts for roughly ₹2,537 crore. And Prudential prepared to offload its holding in ICICI Prudential Asset Management through an open market sale, helping the firm meet India's minimum public float requirement.
State Bank of India, for its part, quietly crossed ₹9 lakh crore in outstanding home loans and set a target of ₹10 lakh crore for the current quarter, backed by nearly 28 percent market share in housing finance and more than 460 loan processing centers spread across the country.
The session ahead would determine whether the optimism arriving from American shores was enough to lift a market that had opened facing the other direction.
The Indian stock market was set to open lower on Thursday, with NIFTY50 futures pointing to an 84-point decline at the open. Yet beneath that headline weakness lay a more complicated picture: American technology giants had just delivered earnings that could reshape sentiment across India's information technology sector, even as domestic companies faced their own crosscurrents of opportunity and legal trouble.
NVIDIA reported second-quarter revenue of $96.2 billion, substantially exceeding analyst expectations, powered by relentless demand for its artificial intelligence chips. The company guided for $108 billion in the following quarter, a projection that sent a clear signal about the durability of AI spending. Salesforce, meanwhile, grew its second-quarter revenue 11 percent year-over-year to $11.35 billion and raised its full-year outlook, citing strength in its AI product line. These results mattered not because they were abstract data points, but because Indian IT companies—many of them deeply embedded in the technology supply chains and service ecosystems of American firms—stood to benefit from sustained corporate spending on cloud infrastructure, data transformation, and AI capabilities. Analysts expected the Indian IT sector to remain in focus as investors parsed what these American earnings meant for their own holdings.
The domestic landscape offered its own set of stories. HDFC Bank, India's largest private lender, faced a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleged that the bank had made materially false or misleading statements and withheld information about payments totaling approximately ₹45 crore that were allegedly routed through its marketing budget to induce deposits from a state entity. The allegation struck at questions of disclosure and governance that investors watch closely.
Elsewhere, IRB Infrastructure announced plans to acquire up to 5.4 crore additional shares at ₹65 per share, representing a total investment of ₹351 crore. The company had also commissioned its highest quarterly renewable energy capacity in a single period—601 megawatts of power, split between 458 megawatts of solar and 143 megawatts of wind—while adding 403 megawatt-hours of battery storage. The combination of capital deployment and operational momentum suggested the stock would draw investor attention.
Hindustan Copper's offer for sale drew institutional investors who oversubscribed the offering 3.41 times on the first day, bidding more than ₹4,600 crore. The government exercised its full greenshoe option, expanding the sale. When retail investors participated on the second day, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management noted the "enthusiastic response," a signal that public sector equity sales were finding ready buyers.
In the pharmaceutical and consumer sectors, major shareholders were reshuffling their stakes. General Atlantic Singapore reduced its holding in Rubicon Research from 35.83 percent to 27.45 percent, offloading 1.38 crore shares at an average price of ₹1,660 per share for a total transaction value of ₹2,299.61 crore. Capital Group sold 67.64 crore shares in Avenue Supermarts at ₹3,750.58 apiece, a deal worth ₹2,537.12 crore. Prudential was preparing to sell its stake in ICICI Prudential Asset Management through an open market process on August 27, a move designed to help the asset manager meet India's 15 percent minimum public float requirement within five years of its December 2025 listing.
State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, had crossed ₹9 lakh crore in home loans during the previous financial year and was targeting ₹10 lakh crore in the current quarter. The bank held nearly 28 percent market share in housing finance and operated more than 460 home loan processing centers across the country, a distribution network that reflected its strategy to make mortgage products accessible beyond metropolitan centers.
The day ahead would test whether the optimism radiating from American technology earnings could offset the weight of a lower opening and the various corporate and legal developments unfolding across India's largest companies.
Citations marquantes
We should be reaching the 10 trillion mark, hopefully in this quarter itself— SBI official to PTI on home loan portfolio growth
The issue received an enthusiastic response from retail investors— DIPAM Secretary Arunish Chawla on Hindustan Copper OFS
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