IT Stocks Rally As Anthropic-Salesforce Deal Allays Fears Of AI Disruption For SaaS Companies

Shares of IT (information technology) companies are leading the gainers’ deck on the stock market today. Stocks of IT majors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, and HCLTech are up 2–4 percent during early trade on Wednesday.

While the shares of TCS were trading at a high of 2.7 percent, Infosys and HCLTech were up 2.1 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

After Nifty Metal, Nifty IT is the highest gainer among the sectoral indices. While the former is up around 2.8 percent, the latter is hovering at a gain of 2.6 percent in Wednesday’s trade.

Data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) website shows that out of the top 10 gainers in the Nifty 50, four are IT companies: HCLTech, TCS, Infosys, and Tech Mahindra.

The Indian IT rally follows the surge in technology stocks in the United States after artificial intelligence giant Anthropic announced partnerships with several SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies, including Salesforce.

Anthropic’s decision indicates that the company will collaborate with SaaS and enterprise tech companies. Its recently launched AI tool, which can scan code, had sent software companies into a tizzy.

Its latest announcement signals that the rise of AI may be more collaborative than disruptive, as conceived earlier.

Indian IT companies are also under pressure from the technology shift, with several stocks at multi-year low valuations.

According to a report dated February 20 by brokerage firm Mirae Asset, the Nifty IT index is at a discount of about 21.3 percent versus the Nifty 50 (up about 11.5 percent) over the past year.

“The steepest drop hit in recent weeks, driven by AI disruption fears that sent valuations to multi-year lows. The market is pricing in a grim ‘end state’ where AI erodes traditional IT revenues, capping long-term growth at 2–3 percent,” it said.

However, it also said that the sell-off is overlooking the decade-long transition. “Enterprises still rely on complex, custom legacy systems, ancient code, tangled SaaS apps, unique workflows that can’t be replaced overnight,” it said in the report.