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Informist, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026

 

By Eshitva Prakash

 

MUMBAI – Benchmark indices closed higher Wednesday after a range-bound session as investors covered their short positions on select metal companies, helping these stocks to rise. Information technology stocks ended lower as investors adopted a sell-on-rise approach after these stocks ended higher Tuesday. Public sector banks extended their gains as investors continued to move from the volatile IT sector into banking stocks, which reported higher-than-expected net profit growth in the December quarter. 

 

"Investors are sceptical regarding the immediate earnings growth of the IT companies due to the AI impact," said Sumit Pokharna, vice president and information technology analyst at Kotak Securities. The analyst said IT companies will see a 2-3% impact on their revenue over the next couple of years due to the impact of artificial intelligence companies. Additionally, Pokharna sees lower employee additions going forward as IT companies integrate AI-related "productivity enhancements" to their operations. The IT services industry is likely to see a decline in aggregate headcount over the next year or two before again becoming a net creator of jobs, said S. Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys, at the India AI Impact Summit. 

 

Shares of Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro closed 1-2% lower and ended near the bottom of the Nifty 50 pack. Midcap and smallcap stocks such as Oracle Financial Services Software, Mphasis, Persistent Systems, and LTIMindtree ended around 2% lower each. The Nifty IT index ended over 1% lower. So far in February, the sectoral index has lost more than 14%. This rout was triggered majorly by Anthropic, which released new plug-ins for its Claude Cowork tool on Jan. 30, and was worsened by AI-integration commentary from Palantir. 

 

Meanwhile, since the start of February, the Nifty PSU Bank index has added nearly 7% and the Nifty Bank index has risen over 3%. State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank have seen the most gains this month and have risen 4–13%. Investors have been selling IT stocks and buying banking and financial service companies for better gains, said Rupak De, technical analyst at LKP Securities. On Wednesday, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, and Punjab & Sind Bank ended 2–3% higher.

 

The Nifty 50 settled at 25819.35 points, up 93.95 points or 0.4%. The 50-stock index moved in a 100-point range throughout the session, before registering some quick gains in the final minutes of trading. An over 1% rise in shares of Reliance Industries and a similar rise in Axis Bank was the biggest support for the index. Eternal was among the major drags apart from IT stocks and its shares ended 1.5% lower. HDFC Life Insurance gained the most among other Nifty 50 companies, ending 3.4% higher. The BSE Sensex ended at 83734.25 points, up 283.29 points or 0.3%.

 

Barring Adani Enterprises and Welspun Corp., all other constituents of the Nifty Metal index ended higher. Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, and JSW Steel ended 0.5-3.0% higher. Companies in production of precious metals such as Hindustan Zinc and Vedanta ended around 1% higher, tracking an over 3% rise in the March futures contract of Silver on the Multi Commodity Exchange. Hindustan Copper ended with over nearly 4% gains, following a sharp rise in February futures contract of copper on the MCX.

 

Global brokerage JP Morgan expects the outlook for steel prices to remain supportive in the near to medium term. The ongoing rally in steel prices is driven by supply tightness, restocking, and rise in coking coal costs, rather than a significant improvement in demand, NDTV Profit posted on X, citing the brokerage. Indian steel prices have some more room to rise until the seasonally strong period up to May, the brokerage said.

 

Shares of Godfrey Phillips India ended nearly 20% higher amid media reports that cigarettes will see a near 20–40% price increase in the coming days at a retail level. Shares of ITC ended over 2% higher. Brokerage B&K Securities said that ITC has introduced a steep price hike across key categories which will help offset the impact of the excise duty hike and boost its earnings before interest and tax per stick, according to a social media post by NDTV Profit. Price hikes have been fully passed on in the premium cigarette segment and minimal price hikes have been made in the price-sensitive 69 millimetre and 64 millimetre segments, CNBC TV18 said in a post on X, citing global brokerage UBS. This pricing approach is likely to minimise the impact on volumes and EBIT, the brokerage said.

 

Shares of Netweb Technologies ended 9% higher after the company earlier in the day announced the launch of Tyrone Camarero Spark, the world's smallest Artificial Intelligence supercomputer, which is powered by Nvidia's sovereign AI development. The supercomputer, manufactured in India by Netweb Technologies, is based on Nvidia DGX Spark platform and powered by the NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip for developers. 

 

Shares of another AI player E2E Networks ended 11.5% higher amid report that Nvidia announced a collaboration with the company to deliver advanced AI factories. E2E Networks is building an NVIDIA Blackwell GPU cluster on its TIR platform, as per the reports. The company clarified that it had not entered into any new negotiations, binding agreements, partnerships, or arrangements with Nvidia or any other party, beyond what was disclosed in the aforesaid press release and transcript. 

Shares of Aurobindo Pharma ended over 2% lower after media reports said the company had received nine observations from the US Food and Drug Administration, following an inspection of its Unit 7 manufacturing facility in Jedcherla, Telangana. The observation notes gaps in quality systems, documentation, and data integrity, according to reports.

 

Shares of Ola Electric Mobility pared most of its earlier gains to end 1% higher. It had risen as high as 5% intraday after the company said that the Bombay High Court had stayed the warrant issued by the District Consumer Commission, South Goa, against its Chief Executive Officer Bhavish Aggarwal. However, the stock is down more than 10% over the last seven days after a flurry of massive target price cuts by Citi and Emkay Global Financial Services. 

 

Shares of Dilip Buildcon rose over 4% higher after the company late Tuesday said it has been declared the lowest bidder for an INR-7.02-billion project to construct a flood protection embankment on the Narmada river in Bharuch, Gujarat. The tender was floated by Narmada Water Resources Water Supply & Kalpasar Department, under the government of Gujarat. The project is expected to be completed in two years, according to the company.

 

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 33 rose and 15 fell, 2 were unchanged

* Of the Sensex stocks, 19 rose and 11 fell

* On the NSE, 1,715 stocks rose, 1,458 fell, and 107 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 2,237 stocks rose, 1,955 fell, and 204 were unchanged

* Nifty Metal: up 1.3%; Nifty PSU Bank: up 1.3%; Nifty IT: down 1.2%

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BSE                                                 NSE

Sensex: 83734.25, up 283.29 points or 0.3%          Nifty 50: 25819.35, up 93.95 points or 0.4%

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S&P BSE Sensitive Index	Nifty 50
Lifetime High: 86159.02 (Dec. 1, 2025)	: Lifetime High: 26373.20 (Jan. 5, 2026)
Record Close High: 85836.12 (Sept. 26, 2024)	: Record Close High: 26328.55 (Jan. 2, 2026)
2026 1st day close: 85188.60 (Jan. 1)	: 2026 1st day close: 26146.55 (Jan. 1)
2026 Closing High: 85762.01 (Jan. 2)	: 2026 Closing High: 26328.55 (Jan. 2)
2026 Closing Low: 80722.94 (Feb. 1)	: 2026 Closing Low: 24825.45 (Feb. 1)
2026 High (intraday): 85883.50 (Jan. 5)	: 2026 High (intraday): 26373.20 (Jan. 5)
2026 Low (intraday): 79899.42 (Feb. 1)	: 2026 Low (intraday): 24571.75 (Feb. 1)
2025 1st day close: 78507.41 (Jan. 1)	: 2025 1st day close: 23742.90 (Jan. 1)
2025 Closing High: 85720.38 (Nov. 27)	: 2025 Closing High: 26215.55 (Nov. 27)
2025 Closing Low: 72989.93 (Mar. 4)	: 2025 Closing Low: 22082.65 (Mar. 4)
2025 High (intraday): 86159.02 (Dec. 1)	: 2025 High (intraday): 26325.80 (Dec.1)
2025 Low (intraday): 71425.01 (Apr. 7)	: 2025 Low (intraday): 21743.65 (Apr. 7)
2024 1st day close: 72271.94 (Jan. 1)	: 2024 1st day close: 21741.90 (Jan. 1)
2024 Closing High: 85836.12 (Sept. 26)	: 2024 Closing High: 26216.05 (Sept. 26)
2024 Closing Low: 70370.55 (Jan. 23)	: 2024 Closing Low: 21238.80 (Jan. 23)
2024 High (intraday): 85978.25 (Sep. 27)	: 2024 High (intraday): 26277.35 (Sept. 27)
2024 Low (intraday): 70001.60 (Jan. 24)	: 2024 Low (intraday): 21137.20 (Jan. 24)
2023 1st day close: 61167.79 (Jan. 2)	: 2023 1st day close: 18197.45 (Jan. 2)
2023 Closing High: 72410.38 (Dec. 28)	: 2023 Closing High: 21778.70 (Dec. 28)
2023 Closing Low: 59288.35 (Feb. 27)	: 2023 Closing Low: 17311.80 (Oct. 17)
2023 High (intraday): 72484.34 (Dec. 28)	: 2023 High (intraday): 21801.45 (Dec. 28)
2023 Low (intraday): 58699.20 (Jan. 30)	: 2023 Low (intraday): 17098.55 (Jan. 17)
2022 1st day close: 59183.22 (Jan. 3)	: 2022 1st day close: 17625.70 (Jan. 3)
2022 Closing High: 63284.19 (Dec. 1)	: 2022 Closing High: 18812.50 (Dec. 1)
2022 Closing Low: 51360.42 (Jun. 17)	: 2022 Closing Low: 15293.50 (Jun. 17)
2022 High (intraday): 63583.07 (Dec. 1)	: 2022 High (intraday): 18887.60 (Dec. 1)
2022 Low (intraday): 50921.22 (Jun. 17)	: 2022 Low (intraday): 15183.40 (Jun. 17)
2021 Closing High: 61305.95 (Oct. 14)	: 2021 Closing High: 18338.55 (Oct. 14)
2021 Closing Low: 46285.77 (Jan. 29)	: 2021 Closing Low: 13634.60 (Jan. 29)
2021 High (intraday): 61353.25 (Oct. 14)	: 2021 High (intraday): 18350.75 (Oct. 14)
2021 Low (intraday): 46160.46 (Jan. 29)	: 2021 Low (intraday): 13596.75 (Jan. 29)
2020 Closing High: 47751.33 (Dec. 31)	: 2020 Closing High: 13981.95 (Dec. 30)
2020 Closing Low: 25981.24 (Mar. 23)	: 2020 Closing Low: 7610.25 (Mar. 23)
2020 High (intraday): 47896.97 (Dec. 31)	: 2020 High (intraday): 14024.85 (Dec. 31)
2020 Low (intraday): 25638.90 (Mar. 24)	: 2020 Low (intraday): 7511.10 (Mar. 24)
2019 High (intraday): 41809.96 (Dec. 20)	: 2019 High (intraday): 12293.90 (Dec. 20)
2019 Low (intraday): 35287.16 (Feb. 19)	: 2019 Low (intraday): 10583.65 (Jan. 29)
2018 High (intraday): 38938.91(Aug. 28))	: 2018 High(intraday): 11760.20 (Aug. 28)
2018 Low (intraday): 32483.8 (Mar. 23)	: 2018 Low (intraday): 9951.9 (Mar. 23)
2017 High (intraday): 34005.37 (Dec. 26)	: 2017 High(intraday): 10515.10 (Dec. 26)

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End

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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