

How HCLTech defied the gravity of India's four-year IT slump
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. HCL Technologies Ltd has emerged as the sole bright spark in a four-year sombre stretch for India’s information technology (IT) investors, leveraging a stable leadership and an early pivot toward artificial intelligence (AI) to outpace its Big Five peers. While the broader IT sector grappled with a post-pandemic hangover and the growing threat of automation, Noida-based HCLTech has delivered a 29% return since early 2022.
That performance stands in stark contrast to the rest of the industry’s heavyweights, which have seen billions in market value evaporate as growth visibility dimmed. Data compiled by Bloomberg shows that HCLTech shares climbed 28.86% between 1 January 2022 and 16 January 2026. During the same period, the remaining members of the Big Five slumped: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) fell 14.2%, Infosys Ltd 11% and Tech Mahindra Ltd 6.7%, while Wipro Ltd fared the worst, plummeting more than 25%.
The divergence highlights a shifting pecking order in India’s $283 billion IT services export machine. HCLTech, the nation’s third-largest software services provider, has outgrown its peers in two of the last four years. It closed FY25 with $13.84 billion in revenue, up 4.3% annually, following a 5.4% expansion in 2024.
"Among the large-cap companies, we have delivered the highest growth in the last three years, and in the fourth year running, we would probably deliver the highest growth," HCLTech chief executive officer (CEO) C. Vijayakumar said in an interview last week. "Even though the growth is mid-single digit, it is definitely much higher than some of our peer group." The company is guiding for full-year growth of 4% to 4.5% in constant currency terms for the current
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