Trump Reciprocal Tariffs: IT stocks Persistent, Coforge others fall up to 10% after Nasdaq futures tank

Shares of India’s IT companies, particularly the Midcap IT names Persistent Systems Ltd., Coforge Ltd., and KPIT Tech Ltd., among others declined significantly on Thursday, April 3, after US President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs across as many as 60 countries globally, which resulted in a sharp fall in US equity futures. The Nifty IT index is the top sectoral loser.

Midcap IT stocks like Persistent Systems and Coforge are down 10% and 7.5% respectively, while other stocks like Mphasis and KPIT Tech are down between 4% to 7%.

Earlier in the day, futures on the Nasdaq are down over 3% or nearly 600 points on Thursday. In case such a gap holds, the index might open below levels of 17,000 on Thursday evening.

The Trump administration has imposed a 26% reciprocal tariff on India, although there is no specific tariff that has been imposed on IT services. However, the White House Annexure shows the figure to be 27%.

The Nifty IT index is down 17% so far in 2025, with all 10 constituents of the index trading with losses between 12% to as high as 40%.

Oracle Financial is the worst performer on the index so far, with losses of 40%.

Brokerage firm JPMorgan wrote in a note on Wednesday that with the fall seen in the Nifty IT so far in 2025, a lot of the negatives are priced in.

The brokerage would prefer to play for relief rallies in more beaten down names.

It has highlighted Coforge, Infosys, KPIT Tech as its preferred plays but recommends avoiding stocks like TCS, Wipro, HCLTech, Tata Technologies for the quarter.

TCS will kickstart the earnings for largecap IT stocks when it reports its March quarter and full year results for financial year 2025 on Thursday, April 10.