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Informist, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026

 

By Eshitva Prakash

 

MUMBAI – The benchmark equity indices are expected to rise further Tuesday after rebounding sharply Monday, according to technical analysts. Investor sentiment may be boosted by the trade secretary's announcement Monday that the US could drop 32% tariffs on India as early as this week. However, the market will be volatile owing to the weekly expiry of Nifty 50 derivatives contracts Tuesday. US markets are closed Monday for Presidents' Day.

 

A delegation will travel to the US next week to ‌finalise the trade agreement between New Delhi and Washington, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said ‌Monday. The secretary said India expects the US to ‌reduce tariffs on Indian goods ‌to 18% as early as this week. The official deal is expected to be completed by March when the two sides sign a bilateral trade agreement. In case there is a delay, the Indian delegation will take up the matter next week in Washington, he added. The US is expected to scrap reciprocal duty on some products completely after the deal is signed in March.

 

The trade secretary added that he sees goods and services exports at nearly $850 billion in the financial year 2025-26 (Apr-Mar). For the ten months ended January, India's merchandise and services exports were at $720.67 bln, according to data from the commerce ministry. According to the January export data released earlier in the day, the US remains the country's top export destination, with India's Apr-Jan exports rising to $72.46 billion from $68.46 billion a year ago.

 

Shares of information technology companies will be in focus once again as analysts do not believe technology majors are out of the woods just yet. With adoption of artificial intelligence accelerating across enterprises, large-cap IT services companies are likely to face meaningful headwinds going forward, Prabhakar Kudva, director and principal officer, portfolio management service, Samvitti Capital, said in a note. "The ongoing market correction presents a good opportunity to reallocate that capital into themes with stronger earnings growth tailwinds--areas which are well-positioned to outperform IT services over the medium to long term," the analyst said.

 

The AI Impact Summit in Delhi is expected to provide direction for IT and IT services companies, according to Siddhartha Khemka, head of research, wealth management, at Motilal Oswal Financial Services. "Updates on enterprise AI adoption, monetisation, deal pipelines, and regulatory outlook will be closely tracked, offering cues on demand trends and the broader growth outlook for the tech sector, which has underperformed in recent sessions," he said.

"The Nifty IT index has probably already faced most of its losses," Jatin Gedia, technical analyst at Teji Mandi Investment Securities, said. However, he does not expect a recovery "very fast", saying a trend-reversal is not yet apparent on the daily charts. Monday, the Nifty IT index ended slightly higher after dropping for three straight sessions.

 

The Nifty 50 is expected to find support at 25600 points and face resistance at 25800 points, Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities, said. Monday, the 50-stock index ended at 25682.75 points, up 211.65 points or 0.8%. The BSE Sensex ended at 83277.15 points, up 650.39 points or 0.8%.  End

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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