Nifty IT Rally, October 2026: How Q2 Results Turned the Sector Into the Market’s Engine

For the first four sessions of this fortnight, IT went backwards. Then results season started. The Nifty IT rally in October 2026 took the index from 27,736.60 on October 8, the day TCS reported, to 31,924.10 on October 16. That is a 15.10% rise in six sessions, on NSE’s closing data.

Educational content only. Not investment advice. Index levels and stock prices are from NSE’s daily index files and bhavcopies; results figures and context are from the reports linked below. Percentage changes are our own calculations from NSE closes.

The Nifty IT rally in October 2026, session by session

Before TCS, the sector was drifting lower. Nifty IT fell on each of the first four sessions of the fortnight, including a 1.34% drop on RBI policy day. After TCS, it rose on five of the next six days:

• Oct 9: up 3.02%, as TCS shares reacted to the numbers.
• Oct 12: down 0.79%, the one pause.
• Oct 13: up 5.22% on HCLTech’s results. Business Standard called it the index’s best day in 17 months.
• Oct 14: up 1.14%.
• Oct 15: up 1.82%.
• Oct 16: up 3.92%, with Tech Mahindra (up 8.48% on the day) and Wipro (up 5.95%) the biggest movers in the pack.

CNBC-TV18, in its October 16 market wrap, said the week ended October 16 was Nifty IT’s biggest weekly gain in nearly 18 years.

What the companies actually reported

It helps to look past the share prices at the results themselves, because they were not uniformly great.

• TCS: Q2 net profit of ₹13,884 crore, up 14.9% year on year, on revenue of ₹73,188 crore, up 11.2% year on year, per Business Standard’s TCS Q2 review of October 9. Brokerages were split, with Nirmal Bang flagging weak margins.
• HCLTech: net profit up 21.2% year on year to ₹5,132 crore, revenue up 11.5% to ₹35,620 crore and an operating margin of 18.2%, per Business Standard’s October 13 report linked above.
• Tech Mahindra: net profit up 32.74% year on year to ₹1,585.6 crore, plus a 1:1 bonus issue and a ₹15 interim dividend, according to BusinessLine.
• Wipro: CNBC-TV18 said the stock rose after the company indicated deals deferred from Q2 would move into Q3.

The numbers were good rather than spectacular. The bigger change was in how much bad news investors had already priced in.

The stock scorecard

From the October 8 close to October 16, on NSE:

• Tech Mahindra: ₹1,496.20 to ₹1,790.00, up 19.64%
• TCS: ₹2,076.00 to ₹2,465.00, up 18.74%
• HCLTech: ₹1,176.90 to ₹1,380.00, up 17.26%
• Infosys: ₹997.00 to ₹1,161.20, up 16.47%
• Wipro: ₹158.38 to ₹184.40, up 16.43%
• LTM: up 12.13%. Mphasis: up 8.54%. Coforge: up 7.58%. Persistent Systems: up 4.99%.

The big five did much better than the mid-tier names. Persistent and Coforge gained less than half as much as Tech Mahindra over the same stretch.

Our take

We would read this as a re-rating from very low expectations rather than a sudden boom in demand. BusinessLine also linked part of the move to a global rotation into AI-related technology. The risk is obvious: after a 15% run in six sessions, the next set of numbers, and the commentary that comes with them, will be judged much more harshly.

For the daily context, see our Sensex and Nifty recap for October 13 and Nifty on October 16. And if you are trying to make sense of IT results yourself, our guide on how to analyse quarterly results covers the margin and deal numbers that matter.

Sources: NSE index closing files and equity bhavcopies for October 8 to October 16, 2026 (percentage changes are our calculations from NSE closes); Business Standard, “TCS Q2 review: Analysts flag weak margins amid steady growth” (October 9, 2026); Business Standard on HCLTech and IT stocks (October 13, 2026, linked above); The Hindu BusinessLine (October 16, 2026, linked above); CNBC-TV18, “Market wrap: Nifty IT surges 11.5% for biggest weekly gain in nearly 18 years” (October 16, 2026).

Disclaimer: This article is for information and education only and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Please do your own research or consult a SEBI-registered adviser before investing.