CEO rallies evaporate in a flash as investors punish Wipro and LTIMindtree amid IT slump
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In less than two trading sessions, investors of Wipro Ltd have wiped out almost 90% of the stock’s gains since its new chief executive Srinivas Pallia took over in April 2024. Over the same period, shares of LTIMindtree have lost over 25% of their gains since CEO Venu Lambu took over at the end of May 2025.
The specific causes of the declines vary between the two companies, but they are all encompassed by two broad headwinds facing India’s IT sector – AI-led automation resulting in pricing pressure, and uncertainty around tariffs. From 7 April 2024, when Pallia took over as Wipro’s chief executive, to 16 January 2026, before the company announced its December-quarter results, the stock rose 10.16%. The company then reported $2.64 billion in revenue, up 1.2% sequentially, beating analyst expectations.
However, investors were not pleased. The stock plunged 8% when markets reopened on Monday, and were down another 1.3% at 11:15 am on Tuesday. This took the total decline to 9.3% in less than two trading sessions, which is more than 90% of the gains made since Pallia took over.
The stock's decline can be attributed to three factors: a tepid growth outlook, weak organic growth, and delayed ramp-ups. Management guided for fourth-quarter revenue of $2.64-2.69 billion, which implies a decline at the lower end of the range. At least one brokerage expects a decline in organic revenue, and muted growth at best.
“Wipro guides for 0-2% QoQ CC revenue growth for Q4FY26, lower than current quarter sequential growth at mid-point. Q4 growth could be aided by a two-month incremental contribution of around 1.6% from the Harman DTS acquisition, implying weak organic growth of -1.6% to 0.5% QoQ CC. Guidance
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