IT stocks underperform

Livspace said IKEA's parent Ingka Group has invested an undisclosed sum in the Indian company. "Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, has made a minority investment in the company. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, representing 90 per cent of the total IKEA retail sales through 367 stores in 30 markets," Livspace said. IT stocks underperformed the borader market on Monday. In early trade, the IT index was the sole one trading in the red. However, the index ended in the green, by gaining

0.69 per cent to 15,515.99. Among the IT stocks, Infosys fell 0.19 per cent. Intraday, it was trading 2.34 per cent down.Other losers included L&T Infotech (1.54 per cent), Tech Mahindra (-1.04 per cent) and Allsec Technologies

(-0.79 per cent).

In contrast, TCS bounced back to close 2.05 per cent up. Intraday, it was trading

2.19 per cent down. Analysts said the rising rupee would pressure IT stocks.The rupee appreciated 49 paise to settle at

69.74 against the dollar. Another reason was the trade war jitters in global markets. The fallout from the White House’s moves against Chinese telecom giant Huawei battered technology shares in major markets.

Markets remain on edge as the trade war develops, with the impact of President Donald Trump’s threats to choke Huawei Technologies Co reverberating across the global supply chain on Monday and hitting some of the biggest component-makers.

Trump said in an interview he was “very happy” with the trade war and that China wouldn’t become the world’s top superpower under his watch.

“People are starting to come around to the idea that maybe these tariffs will be around a bit longer than anticipated,” said Crit Thomas, Global Market Strategist at Touchstone.