Carnage in IT stocks takes Nifty back to 25,800
Welcome to Aftermarket Report, a newsletter where we do a quick daily wrap-up of what happened in the markets, both in India and globally.
In our latest episode of In The Money by Zerodha video series, we begin a brand-new series on what many professionals consider the single most important pillar of trading: Position Sizing. You can survive with an imperfect strategy. You cannot survive with a broken position sizing framework.
Most traders obsess over entries, indicators, and setups. Very few spend enough time on how much capital to deploy, how much risk to take, and how to stay alive during drawdowns. In reality, performance does not end at backtests. That is where the real work begins.
Market Overview
Nifty opened with a 47-point gap-down at 25,907 and came under immediate selling pressure, slipping quickly toward the 25,820–25,830 zone in the first 20 minutes. A brief recovery attempt emerged mid-morning, with the index rebounding to test the 25,880–25,890 zone. Still, the upside remained capped as the IT sector fell sharply by 5% and Nifty gradually drifted lower again, trading with a weak bias through the late morning session.
In the second half, the index stayed choppy and range-bound, oscillating between 25,810 and 25,850 for most of the afternoon. A sharp dip in the final hour briefly dragged Nifty to the 25,760–25,770 zone, but it recovered part of the losses to eventually settle at 25,807.20, ending marginally lower and extending the ongoing consolidation phase, with 26,000 continuing to remain elusive.
Looking ahead, markets are likely to remain sensitive to global risk appetite, ongoing Q3 earnings, and domestic cues.
Broader Market Performance:
The broader market had a weak session today. Of the 3,257 stocks that traded on the NSE, 1,151 advanced, 2,008 declined, and 98 remained unchanged.
Sectoral Performance:
Nifty Consumer Durables was the top gainer today, up 0.40%, while Nifty IT was the top loser, down 5.51%. Overall, 2 sectors closed in green, and 10 sectors ended in red.
Here’s the trend of FII-DII activity from the last 5 days:
Change in OI for the day
The following is the change in OI for Nifty contracts expiring on 17th February:
The maximum Call Open Interest (OI) is observed at 26,000, followed by 25,900, indicating potential resistance at the 26,000 -26,100 levels.
The maximum Put Open Interest (OI) is observed at 25,800, followed by 25,500 & 25,700, suggesting support at 25,700-25,600.
Note: OI is subject to multiple interpretations; however, generally, an increase in Call OI indicates resistance in a falling market, while an increase in Put OI indicates support in a rising market.
Source: Sensibull
Tijori is an investment research platform that has constructed niche indices for various themes and sub-sectors. They help you understand the market performance of narrow slices of the market. You can also track the Promoter buying and other interesting stuff, like Capex activity by the companies in the Tijori App’s idea dashboard
What’s happening in India
India’s retail inflation (new CPI base 2024) came in at 2.75% in January 2026, with rural at 2.73% and urban at 2.77%. Food inflation was 2.13%, while the new series lowers the weight of food & beverages to 36.8% from 45.9%. Dive deeper
IT stocks saw heavy selling, with the Nifty IT index plunging 5%. The fall was driven by rising concerns that AI could disrupt traditional software services earnings and business models. Dive deeper
HUL reported a more than two-fold jump in Q3 FY26 net profit to ₹6,607 crore, mainly due to a one-time gain from the ice cream demerger. Underlying PAT rose 1% to ₹2,562 crore, while net sales grew 5.6% with 4% volume growth. Dive deeper
Rolls-Royce announced plans to sharply expand in India, including co-developing a next-gen combat jet engine after its CEO met PM Modi. The company aims to double its workforce to 10,000 and increase local sourcing 10-fold across defence and energy. Dive deeper
Adani Power formed a new unit, Adani Atomic Energy Ltd, marking a formal entry into India’s newly opened nuclear power sector. The subsidiary will focus on nuclear-based power generation, transmission, and distribution. Dive deeper
Honasa Consumer reported a 93% year-on-year jump in Q3 FY26 net profit to ₹50 crore. Revenue grew 16% to ₹602 crore, supported by strong demand across its beauty and personal care brands. Dive deeper
Muthoot Finance posted a 95% year-on-year surge in Q3 FY26 net profit to ₹2,656 crore, with NII rising 64% to ₹4,467 crore. Loan AUM grew 48% to ₹1.65 lakh crore in 9M FY26, led by strong gold loan disbursements. Dive deeper
What’s happening globally
Gold slipped to around $5,050/oz as strong U.S. jobs data led markets to pare back Fed rate-cut expectations. A sharp rise in January employment and a surprise fall in unemployment reinforced the case for higher-for-longer rates. Dive deeper
Brent climbed toward $70/bbl, extending gains to near a five-month high amid elevated U.S.–Iran tensions. Even with Trump signalling interest in a deal, markets stayed wary of escalation and supply disruption risks. Dive deeper
Britain’s economy grew just 0.1% in Q4 2025, matching the weak pace seen in the previous quarter. The data highlights persistent stagnation amid fiscal uncertainty and subdued business sentiment. Dive deeper
European equities hit fresh record highs on Thursday, with the STOXX 50 surging over 1% past 6,100 and the broader STOXX 600 gaining 0.6% to around 625 points, driven by strong corporate earnings. Dive deeper
South Korea’s KOSPI surged 3.13% to a record 5,522, marking its fourth straight session of gains. Semiconductor and AI-linked stocks led the rally, including Samsung, SK Hynix, and SK Square. Dive deeper
Management chatter
In this section, we highlight interesting comments made by the management of major companies and policymakers from the Indian and Global Economies.
Anish Shah, CEO of Mahindra Group, on the recent IT sell-off:
"There has been a high degree of overreaction to this. We have known what the benefits of AI are. It does bring in a high level of productivity, and we have adapted to that."
"In the last 25 years, we have come across predictions that call centres will go away, Y2K will wipe out IT services, blockchain, and many more. Technology is sometimes hyped in the short term and underappreciated in the long term." - Link
US President Donald Trump, on increasing coal exports to India and other countries:
“And under our leadership, we're becoming a massive energy exporter. In just the past few months, we've made historic trade deals with Japan, Korea, India, and others to increase our coal exports dramatically.”
We’re now exporting coal all over the world, and the quality of our coal is supposed to be...the finest anywhere in the world.” - Link
🧑🏻💻Have you checked out The Chatter?
Every week, we listen to the big Indian earnings calls—Reliance, HDFC Bank, and even smaller logistics firms—and copy the full transcripts. We then remove the fluff and keep only the sentences that could move a share price: a surprise price hike, a cut-back on factory spending, a warning about weak monsoon sales, or a hint from management on RBI liquidity. We add a quick, one-line explainer and a timestamp so you can trace the quote back to the call. The whole thing lands in your inbox as one sharp page of facts you can read in three minutes—no 40-page decks, no jargon, just the hard stuff that matters for your trades and your macro view.
Go check out The Chatter here.
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Calendars
In the coming days, we have the following significant events, quarterly results, and corporate actions:
That’s it from us for today. We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments, and feel free to share this with your friends to spread the word!
Just one suggestion, can you release the corporate action atleast 4 days in advance as next day corporate action is not much of the use unless you want to do intraday trade