IT Sector Jitters: Infosys Shares Slide 8% After Accenture Earnings Shockwave

A dismal outlook from global consultancy major Accenture has triggered a massive sell-off in Indian IT bellwethers, dragging Infosys shares to their lowest point in years.

Investors in the Indian IT space woke up to a grim Friday morning as the infosys share price plummeted by 8% in early trade. The rout followed a brutal overnight session on Wall Street, where the company’s American Depository Receipts (ADR) crashed 10%. This sharp decline marks the stock’s steepest single-day fall since February 2026, effectively ending a brief four-day gaining streak and pushing the company’s market capitalisation below the ₹5 lakh crore milestone.

The carnage on Dalal Street was a direct reverberation of Accenture’s quarterly results, which missed analyst expectations and sent shockwaves through the global consultancy sector. As the industry bellwether, Accenture’s performance is often seen as a proxy for the health of global IT spending. When its shares tumbled a record 18% in the US, the impact was immediate; peers like Cognizant and Capgemini also saw their valuations slashed by 11% and 9% respectively. Even Wipro, which also saw its US-listed stock take a hit, struggled to find a floor before ending 4% lower.

Accenture’s guidance, which was narrowed at the upper end of previous ranges, painted a sobering picture. The company reported a 2% drop in new bookings, with revenue growth projections for the full year trimmed to a 3%–4% range. Management pointed to a $400 million hit to sales and a $100 million revenue impact tied to the ongoing conflict in West Asia—a headwind they expect to persist even if peace is restored.

The Bigger Picture: A Sector Under Pressure

For the Indian tech sector, this correction is more than just a momentary blip. Infosys is now trading roughly 35% below its 52-week high of ₹1,728, underscoring the growing anxiety regarding discretionary technology spending in Western markets. The fact that the stock was already underperforming before the Accenture results—having shed 2.6% on Thursday—suggests that investors were already bracing for a slowdown in enterprise digital transformation budgets.

The current market sentiment reflects a broader reset in expectations for the IT services industry. Clients are increasingly cautious, prioritizing cost-efficiency over large-scale innovation projects. For an export-oriented sector that relies heavily on North American and European demand, the signal from Accenture is clear: the era of easy double-digit growth is facing significant macroeconomic resistance. As the dust settles, the focus now shifts to whether domestic majors can defend their margins in a landscape where global clients are holding onto their purse strings with unprecedented intensity.