Nifty IT at present trades at 15.4 times two-year forward earnings, at par with Nifty but lower than its long-term average premium of 17 per cent. IT stocks were down recently amid concerns over Anthropic’s latest plugins and autonomous AI agents. Kotak Institutional Equities noted that IT firms continued to sign new deals, suggesting no immediate demand shock. That said, some contracts are seeing additional scrutiny around productivity, automation and outcome delivery.
"Clients in these cases are seeking greater clarity on how GenAI will be embedded into delivery models, even if full‑scale benefits remain uncertain. Deal momentum continues, with selective renegotiation on scope and commercials in parts of the pipeline," Kotak said.
The brokerage has 'Buy' on Infosys, TCS and TechM, 'Reduce' on HCL Technologies Ltd and 'Sell' on Wipro Ltd.
ICICI Securities said the consensus is already modelling in subdued revenue growth for FY27–28E. It sees minimal earnings downgrade risk, as AI-driven productivity gains are currently offset by new work volumes. This, it said, allows IT companies to maintain steady revenue momentum.
"The CY26 revenue guidance of global technology services companies – with organic revenue growth for CY26 similar to CY25 – also suggests stable demand environment. IT companies are remodelling their businesses, reflecting in the increased share of fixed-price contracts, improving profitability per employee, infusing AI in their proprietary solutions and platforms, forging partnerships with AInative players, hiring AI skilled talent at premium rates and talent re-skilling and restructuring (talent is becoming fungible)," ICICI Securities said.
In its base case, the brokerage sees stable demand with growth of 3-5 per cent. In bull case, FY28 revenue growth is seen accelerating to 9–10 per cent by FY28, driven by faster enterprise AI adoption. In the bear case, it sees 1–2 per cent growth for IT sector, reflecting intensified AI-led deflation.
"In our bear case scenario, large caps have higher downside risks, while our preferred picks – Coforge, Mphasis, Hexaware and LatentView have upside potential," it said.