Sensex, Nifty Set for Flat Open After Tuesday’s AI-Led Selloff

Indian stock market today is set for a flat open on Wednesday, June 24, as GIFT Nifty futures at GIFT City in Gandhinagar traded at 23,865, up 13 points or 0.05 percent. The setup follows a sharp Tuesday session in which the BSE Sensex settled 893.39 points, or 1.16 percent, lower at 76,200.68, and the NSE Nifty 50 fell to 23,824.10, down 278.80 points or 1.16 percent. The slide was concentrated in technology and metals, the two global proxies most exposed to the AI capital-expenditure debate now shaking Wall Street.

Five things to know before the bell:

1. Wall Street cues: Nasdaq -2.2 percent, S&P 500 -2.21 percent, Dow -0.09 percent on Tuesday’s AI-led tech selloff.
2. GIFT Nifty signals a flat open at 23,865, up 13 points or 0.05 percent.
3. FIIs net buyers of Rs 17.86 crore on Tuesday; DIIs net buyers of Rs 680 crore, per NSE data.
4. IRFC government OFS opens Wednesday for non-retail investors; retail bidding on Thursday.
5. Stocks to watch: IRFC, Delhivery, Wipro, YES Bank, Honasa Consumer, Infosys, Vedanta, Rajesh Exports.

How Tuesday’s AI Selloff Set Up Wednesday’s Flat Open

The Tuesday session had a clear centre of gravity. The Nifty IT index fell 2.23 percent and the Nifty Metal index dropped 3.22 percent, while the Nifty Pharma index was the only sectoral gainer, up 0.92 percent and touching an intraday record high of 25,294.50. The Nifty Media index fell 3.22 percent, emerging as the worst-performing sector of the day, and the PSU Bank index declined 1.97 percent.

Indian benchmarks followed US tech names lower after global investors reassessed the AI capex plans of the four biggest US spenders. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft together plan to allocate roughly $725 billion to capital expenditure in 2026, a figure that has begun to invite the same “who pays for this” questions that hit Asian tech shares earlier in the week. The selling pressure spread from Tokyo and Seoul back to New York on Tuesday and reached Mumbai by midday, with HDFC Bank, Infosys, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Tata Consultancy Services doing most of the damage on the index.

Broader market breadth confirmed the selloff was broad, not narrow. Of 4,447 stocks traded on Tuesday, 1,492 advanced, 2,788 declined and 167 closed unchanged. The rupee settled 11 paise lower at 94.74 against the US dollar, and Brent crude traded around $77.51 a barrel, a level that would normally support Indian macros but did little to offset the equity outflow.

Tuesday’s key index readings:

• Sensex: 76,200.68, -893.39 points (-1.16%)
• Nifty 50: 23,824.10, -278.80 points (-1.16%)
• Nifty IT: -2.23%
• Nifty Metal: -3.22%
• Nifty Pharma: +0.92% (intraday record high 25,294.50)

The setup heading into Wednesday is the same one that triggered Tuesday’s slide: AI capex nerves, a stronger dollar, and weak Asian cues from the previous session. yesterday’s 893-point Sensex selloff led by IT and metals left the index at a level where a flat open at GIFT Nifty 23,865 was the most the order books would concede before the bell.

What Wall Street and Asian Markets Are Signaling

US markets ended sharply lower on Tuesday after a selloff in big technology stocks spread from Asia back to the US on worries about potentially higher interest rates by the end of the year. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.2 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 2.21 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 0.09 percent. Investors who had piled into the AI trade through the first half of the year were, as one wire report put it, having second thoughts, a phrase that has begun appearing in broker notes alongside fresh forecasts for slower consumer spending.

Asia offered mixed cues on Wednesday morning. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite declined 0.25 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.03 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI surged 3 percent, a sharp bounce after the index fell 10 percent in the previous session on AI-related selling. The divergence between the regional AI-exposed markets has been widening for weeks and is now the main external input Indian traders are watching.

Indian markets also have to contend with a stronger dollar and a softer rupee, conditions that typically attract selling in foreign portfolio holdings. the Wall Street futures reaction after May CPI data showed that even an in-line print on US inflation is no longer enough to calm the AI-capex nerves that drove Tuesday’s session.

Stocks in Focus on June 24

Ten names are drawing the heaviest pre-open interest, with IRFC and Infosys leading the slate.

Round one of the IRFC OFS opened for non-retail investors at a floor of Rs 91 per share, a 7.79 percent discount to Tuesday’s BSE close of Rs 98.37, with the issue also available to retail bidders on Thursday. Honasa Consumer, the parent of Mamaearth and The Derma Co, agreed to acquire a 58 percent stake in nutraceuticals firm Fluence Pharma at an enterprise value of Rs 135 crore, marking its entry into the health and wellness supplements market. Wipro said its acquisition of select Alpha Net Consulting LLC customer contracts is now expected by September 30, 2026, and separately announced an expansion of its partnership with Palo Alto Networks to offer AI-driven Managed Detection and Response services.

Private lender YES Bank said its board will meet on June 29 to consider fundraising through a mix of eligible equity and debt securities, including private placement and preferential issue. Logistics major Delhivery saw US-based Nexus Venture Partners sell 43,23,860 shares, representing a 0.57 percent stake, at an average price of Rs 481 apiece through an open market transaction, taking the total transaction value to Rs 207.98 crore. GTPL Hathway, a Reliance Industries Group firm, will acquire the cable television business of seven ACT Group companies for an aggregate cash consideration of Rs 36.23 crore by way of slump sale on a going concern basis. Rashi Peripherals’ NSE filing on the VDA Infosolutions acquisition showed a 67 percent strategic stake in the enterprise technology firm at an equity valuation of Rs 5.5 billion, while Tata Power received a letter from the Ministry of Power extending Section 11 directions on its 4,150 MW Mundra thermal plant until September 30, 2026.

Corporate Action: OFS Opens, AGM Holds, Block Deals Land

IRFC’s OFS is the sixth disinvestment transaction of FY27. The government has already sold minority stakes in five central public sector enterprises and banks, taking total disinvestment receipts to Rs 16,479.89 crore so far this fiscal: Central Bank of India Rs 2,266.13 crore, Coal India Rs 5,542.36 crore, NHPC Rs 4,357.36 crore, NLC India Rs 1,223.57 crore and General Insurance Corporation of India Rs 3,090.47 crore. The Centre has budgeted Rs 80,000 crore from PSU stake sales and asset monetisation in FY 2026-27. The IRFC floor of Rs 91 per share puts the base size of the issue at roughly Rs 2,380 crore, with the additional 1 percent green shoe option taking the maximum potential size to over Rs 4,700 crore. DIPAM Secretary Arunish Chawla announced the issue on X on Tuesday, and IRFC shares fell 5.13 percent to an intraday low of Rs 93.60 on the NSE on Wednesday morning.

Infosys held its 45th Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, and chairman Nandan Nilekani used the platform to push back against the view that generative AI will replace IT services companies. Speaking at the AGM, Nilekani said Infosys is “more relevant than ever” and positioned the company to capture an AI-first services opportunity worth $300 to 400 billion by 2030.

AI will not replace companies like ours. It will amplify those who move with purpose and adapt with speed.

The chairman, speaking at the 45th Annual General Meeting in Bengaluru on Tuesday, added that Infosys is already working with 90 percent of its top 200 clients on AI initiatives, and that the “defining opportunity” lies in integrating intelligent AI systems with mission-critical enterprise platforms. Infosys’s 45th AGM proceedings filed with stock exchanges detail the company’s plan to tap into the AI opportunity and its broader push into AI-first services delivery.

The broader corporate-action calendar also included two large block deals on Tuesday. Twin Star Holdings, the promoter entity of the Vedanta Group, sold about 73 million shares in Vedanta Ltd for Rs 2,149 crore ($250 million) at Rs 292 apiece in a single block trade, with proceeds earmarked to reduce debt at parent Vedanta Resources. Twin Star continues to hold about 40 percent of Vedanta Ltd after the sale, with overall promoter ownership at around 56 percent. In the bond market, Power Finance Corporation raised $300 million through five-year senior unsecured USD-denominated bonds priced at 105 basis points over the benchmark five-year US Treasury for a fixed coupon of 5.32 percent per annum, becoming the first central public sector undertaking and the first in the NBFC space to tap the international bond market following the Reserve Bank of India’s special swap facility announcement.

The Year-Long Institutional Flow Story

Foreign and domestic institutional investors both bought Indian equities on Tuesday, but the daily numbers disguise a much larger pattern underneath.

• FII net inflow Tuesday: Rs 17.86 crore (buyer)
• DII net inflow Tuesday: Rs 680 crore (buyer)
• FII net flow year-to-date 2026: -Rs 2,79,544 crore (seller)

For the year so far, foreign institutional investors have been net sellers of Indian shares worth Rs 2,79,544 crore, per data from National Securities Depository Limited. Tuesday’s Rs 17.86 crore net buying was a tiny ripple against that outflow. Domestic institutional investors, who have been the consistent counter-bid every session, bought Rs 680 crore on Tuesday, adding to a multi-month run of DII absorption of FII supply.

The pattern matters more than any single session. Foreign investors have been withdrawing capital from Indian equities for most of 2026, a flow that has dragged the Nifty from its early-year highs and forced the index to rely on domestic flows, retail SIPs and balance-sheet buying from Indian promoters to defend key support levels. The AI capex debate now roiling global tech adds a new dimension: if US tech earnings begin to disappoint on AI monetisation, foreign flows could stay negative for longer, and the burden on domestic institutions to absorb supply rises. The Infosys chairman’s $300-400 billion AI opportunity forecast and the foreign-investor selling pattern are not contradictory on a one-day view, but the gap between the AI narrative the global tech chiefs keep selling and the AI selloff the global order books keep printing is the single most important thing for Indian markets to reconcile.

Trade Setup and Key Levels

The Nifty 50 fell nearly 280 points on Tuesday, reversing most of the gains made in the previous week, but managed to defend the 50 EMA support of 23,825. The bullish crossover setup remains intact if the index manages to close above the previous day’s swing high of 24,100. On the downside, the 20 EMA level of 23,750 remains a crucial support, below which the index could fill the gap down to 23,615.

The initial build-up for the June expiry suggests 24,000 is a crucial level with the highest open interest on both the call and put side. However, the 24,000, 24,100 and 24,200 calls witnessed heavy open interest concentration, suggesting limited upside potential till 24,200. Options traders are positioning for a range-bound session with the 23,750-24,200 corridor as the expected band.

For traders looking at how that range might be tested, the NIFTY50 trade setup around 23,000 on a prior expiry day shows how round-number support levels tend to behave during weekly option settlements. Wednesday’s expiry-week setup, with 24,000 as the highest OI pivot, will test whether the bulls can reclaim the previous swing high or whether the bears force a retest of 23,750.

Disclaimer: This article is purely for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Please consult with a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decisions. Market figures are accurate as of publication on June 24, 2026.