Nifty IT Weekly Gain, Week to October 23, 2026: The One Sector That Held Up

The market had a bad week, and almost every corner of it bled. One didn’t. The Nifty IT weekly gain of 0.5% in the holiday-shortened week to Friday, October 23, 2026 made information technology the only sectoral index among the main ones tracked by BusinessToday to finish in the green. That 0.5% is the index’s change over the full week, not a single session.

How the rest of the market fared

For context, look at the benchmarks first. The Sensex fell 1,605.44 points, or 2.15%, over the week and the Nifty 50 dropped 546.15 points, or 2.36%, according to a PTI report carried by The Economic Times. Nifty Bank lost 2.8%.

Below the large caps, it was much worse. BusinessToday’s weekly wrap shows the Nifty Midcap 150 down 5.5% and the Nifty Smallcap 250 down 7.1%. Sector indices took heavy hits too:

• Nifty IPO: down 7.5%, the worst of the indices in the report
• Nifty Chemical: down 7.2%
• Nifty Defence: down 7.1%
• Nifty Consumer Durables: down 6.4%
• Nifty Metal: down 5.4%
• Nifty Realty: down 5%

Against that list, a small gain in IT looks a lot more meaningful than the number alone suggests.

HCL Tech and TCS did the heavy lifting

Two stocks stood out. HCL Technologies was the top Nifty 50 gainer of the week, up 3%, and Tata Consultancy Services rose 2.7%, as per the same BusinessToday report. ONGC (up 2.5%), UltraTech Cement (up 1.3%) and Cipla (up 1%) made up the rest of the top five.

The TCS move showed up in its market value as well. The PTI tally in ET says TCS added ₹23,517.56 crore in market capitalisation during the week, taking it to ₹9,14,652.52 crore. It was one of only two companies in the top 10 by value that ended the week richer; L&T was the other.

Not every IT name joined in, though. Infosys, which declared its September-quarter numbers on Friday, lost ₹2,881.38 crore in market value over the week to ₹4,68,528.03 crore, per the same report. We broke down those numbers in our Infosys Q2 results post.

Why IT held up

Analysts quoted in the weekly reports point to earnings. Ajit Mishra of Religare Broking told BusinessToday that IT showed relative resilience on the back of earnings-related optimism and buying in select technology heavyweights, while metal, realty and energy were among the major laggards. Dr Ravi Singh of Master Capital Services made a similar observation to Livemint, saying selling pressure was visible across sectors except IT.

The wider backdrop was rough. BusinessToday’s report links the week’s fall to high crude oil prices, foreign fund outflows and a global sell-off in AI-related stocks. Foreign institutional investors sold about ₹4,606 crore on October 19 and 22 and bought about ₹1,909 crore on October 21 and 23, while domestic institutions bought around ₹10,941 crore over the week.

What to watch this week

One week of outperformance is not a trend. IT held up while the rest of the market was being sold, which is a different thing from a rally. The Nifty 50 closed Friday at 22,600, per Livemint, and the results calendar is packed. Our Q2 results calendar lists who reports when, and the week-ahead preview covers the Fed meeting and other triggers. If the broader market steadies, we would watch whether money rotates out of IT just as quickly as it hid there.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and education only and is not investment advice. Please do your own research or consult a SEBI-registered adviser before making any investment decision.