Indian Shares Extend Slide As AI Jitters Deepen

(RTTNews) - Indian shares tumbled on Friday to extend losses from the previous session as investors fretted about the impact AI could have on revenues and profit margins of financial, transportation and logistics and even commercial real estate companies.

The talk around AI has added to uncertainty about how fast traditional service models might change.

Ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions and dwindling hopes for Fed rate cuts also kept investors on edge ahead of the U.S. Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation for January later in the day that could shed additional clues on the likely path of interest rates.

The benchmark BSE Sensex plunged 1,048.16 points, or 1.25 percent, to 82,626.76 while the NSE Nifty index plummeted 336.10 points, or 1.30 percent, to 25,471.10.

The broader market followed suit, with the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes falling 1.6 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was weak on the BSE, with 2,876 shares falling while 1,324 shares advanced and 164 shares closed unchanged.

Selling was broad-based, with Asian Paints, BEL, Reliance Industries, Power Grid Corp, TCS, Titan Company, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, Eternal and Hindustan Unilever falling 2-4 percent.

Among those that bucked the weak trend, Bajaj Finance rose 2.4 percent to extend its rally for a third consecutive session.