Indian shares pause after US trade-deal rally; IT stocks weigh

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By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M

BENGALURU, Feb 4 (Reuters) - India's equity benchmarks were little changed on Wednesday, a day after recording their best session in nine months following the announcement of the U.S.-India trade deal, as broad gains were offset by decline in IT stocks amid a global tech selloff.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI was up 0.07% to 25,746.40, while the BSE Sensex .BSESN shed 0.07% to 83,678.09, as of 10:27 a.m. IST.

The broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 rose 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively.

Fifteen of the 16 major sectors advanced. IT shares .NIFTYIT fell 6%.

U.S. and European data analytics, professional services and software stocks dropped after AI firm Anthropic launched workplace productivity tools, raising concerns of disruption across the sector. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 1.43% overnight.

The IT selloff is capping gains from optimism over a U.S.-India trade deal, analysts said, noting that Anthropic's tools threaten traditional outsourcing models.

The energy index .NIFTYENR gained 2%, as Reliance Industries RELI.NS shares extended their rally after a 6.6% jump over the last two sessions.

Upstream oil companies such as ONGC ONGC.NS and Oil India OILI.NS added 4% each, tracking a rise in crude oil prices on escalating Middle East tensions. O/R

Auto .NIFTYAUTO, metal .NIFTYMET gained 2% each, while most export-linked companies in auto ancillaries, textiles, apparel, jewellery, pharma, seafood, engineering goods, renewables extended gains on U.S.-India trade deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the trade deal on Monday to cut tariffs to 18% from 50% in exchange for New Delhi halting Russian oil purchases and lowering trade barriers.

India's Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said late on Tuesday the two nations would share details after a "final understanding" of the deal was signed.

"Markets are finding support short-term on de-escalation, easing U.S. tariffs fears that had rattled sentiment, but sustainability of the rise hinges on details of the trade deal," said Dhananjay Sinha, chief executive officer and co-head of institutional equities at Systematix Corporate Services.

Among individual stocks, mattresses maker Sheela Foam SHEF.NS jumped 16% on reporting nearly three-fold year-on-year rise in quarterly profit.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

((vivekkumar.m@thomsonreuters.com))