Feb 17 (Reuters) - India's benchmark indexes edged higher on Tuesday, as IT stocks rallied following the Infosys-Anthropic partnership announcement and overcame a sharp pullback in Reliance shares.
The Nifty 50 rose 0.17% to 25,725.40 and the BSE Sensex added 0.21% to 83,450.96. Both indexes were down about 0.4% in early trade.
IT stocks, the second-heaviest sector on the benchmarks, climbed 1%, on Infosys' 1.9% rise.
The software company said the collaboration with U.S. artificial intelligence major Anthropic will look to unlock value in artificial intelligence across complex, regulated industries.
"Infosys' tie-up with Anthropic is a step in the right direction," said G. Chokkalingam, founder and head of research at Equinomics Research. "That's why IT names saw a tactical bounce after last week's sharp selloff."
The IT index tumbled 8.2% last week, its worst performance in 11 months, on worries that AI-powered disruption could hurt the earnings of India's software companies.
Adani Group stocks gained after the conglomerate's flagship Adani Enterprises said the group will invest $100 billion to build renewable energy-powered AI-ready data centres by 2035. Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports gained 2.7% and 1.7%, respectively.
On the day, 12 of the 16 major sectors logged gains. The broader small-caps and mid-caps rose 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively.
The broader market sentiment is being supported by a brighter FY2027 earnings outlook. December-quarter results showed signs of consumption revival and firmer credit growth at Indian lenders, three analysts said.
State-owned lenders gained 2.1%.
Meanwhile, Nifty 50 index heavyweight Reliance Industries lost 1% on the day, almost negating the previous session's gain.
Metals lost 1.1% on a firmer dollar, which makes the commodity costlier for holders of other currencies. [MET/L]
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Janane Venkatraman and Harikrishnan Nair)
By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
