Indian stocks buck the trend as global chip rout deepens

Indian stocks rallied sharply Thursday, 15 October, breaking with a broad Asian selloff as lower crude oil prices, a firmer rupee and continued buying in technology and financial shares outweighed another steep decline in global semiconductor stocks.

The Sensex jumped more than 800 points in early trading, while the Nifty 50 climbed above 22,850. Banking, technology and consumer shares were among the strongest performers.

The move stood out against losses across most major Asian markets.

South Korea’s Kospi slumped as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix extended a global retreat in semiconductor shares. Japan’s Nikkei also fell, with chip-equipment companies among the biggest decliners.

Samsung and SK Hynix had dropped more than 5% each earlier in the session, while selling accelerated as trading progressed. Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings also fell sharply.

The selloff began in the US, where investors are questioning both the price of technology stocks and the increasingly debt-heavy financing behind the AI infrastructure boom.

A widely followed US semiconductor index has lost about $1.6 trillion in market value over six consecutive sessions, even though companies including Samsung and ASML have continued to report strong underlying demand.

The immediate trigger this week was US inflation. Consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in five months in September, pushing bond yields higher and raising expectations that the Federal Reserve may have to keep monetary policy tighter than investors had anticipated.

That is particularly uncomfortable for AI infrastructure companies because their businesses require enormous amounts of capital. CoreWeave shares plunged 16% on Wednesday, while Nebius fell 11%, Oracle dropped 9% and Dell Technologies lost 11%. The four companies together erased roughly $80 billion in market value.

CoreWeave has become a focal point for those concerns. The cloud-computing company has about $48 billion in debt and commitments, and yields on some of its bonds have risen toward 15%, levels normally associated with distressed borrowing.

The rise in funding costs has forced investors to reconsider a central assumption behind the AI rally: that companies can continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers, chips and electricity while financing remains readily available.

The concern is less acute for cash-rich companies such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Amazon, which can fund much of their capital expenditure from operating cash flow.

It is more serious for highly leveraged AI infrastructure companies and hardware suppliers whose valuations rely on several more years of exceptional spending.

The Philadelphia semiconductor sector and related funds have suffered their longest losing runs since 2025, while investors have favored companies with stronger balance sheets.

India moved in the opposite direction on Thursday. One reason is that the Indian market is less directly exposed to semiconductor manufacturers than South Korea, Taiwan or Japan. Its major benchmarks are dominated by banks, financial companies, energy groups, consumer businesses and IT services providers.

A decline in crude oil prices is also particularly supportive for India, which imports most of the oil it consumes. Lower energy prices reduce pressure on inflation, the current-account deficit and the rupee.
The rupee’s recent rebound has added to the change in sentiment.

Technology shares have also continued to recover after strong quarterly results from HCLTech earlier in the week triggered the sector’s biggest one-day rally in more than 17 months. Banks joined Thursday’s rally, helping broaden the market beyond IT.

The contrast does not leave India insulated from the global shift. Indian technology-services groups ultimately depend heavily on spending by US and European corporations, while another prolonged rise in US bond yields could encourage foreign investors to move money out of emerging-market equities.

The domestic market has also been weak this year despite individual rallies, and foreign investors have remained cautious.