IT stocks dip; Infy, Wipro down 2 per cent

Information technology stocks faced selling pressure on Tuesday as the domestic currency gained against the US dollar ahead of US Fed's meeting. IT majors Infosys, Wipro dipped more than 2 per cent.

Indian IT stocks took on beating after the US markets saw a sell-off on Monday ahead of the US Federal Reserves meeting to decide on an interest rate hikes later on Tuesday. The US Fed is expected to hike interest rates amid concerns of a slow down in the economy. On the other hand, the Trump administration is trying to pressurise the country's central bank to hold back the hike. The US-based Dow Jones Industrial index fell 500 points to close down by 2.11 per cent on Monday.

Also hurting the IT stocks was the uptick seen in the Indian rupee against the US dollar. The rupee rose by 37 paise to Rs. 71.19 against the US dollar. The domestic currency reacted to the fall in crude price and the weakness in the dollar ahead of the Fed meeting. 

Nifty IT index was down by 1 per cent, with IT bellwethers Infosys, Wipro facing selling pressure. Mindtree, Infosys and NIIT were down more than 2 per cent led in the afternoon session, followed by Tech Mahindra and Wipro down more than 1 per cent on Tuesday.

However, the benchmark and boarder market closed in the green. The BSE Sensex closed at 36,347.08, up by 77.01 points or 0.21 per cent, while Nifty50 closed at 10,908.70, up by 20.35 points or 0.19 per cent. On the other hand, Nifty Small-cap 100 closed up by 0.73 per cent and Nifty Mid-cap 100 closed up by 0.37 per cent on Tuesday.