BENGALURU: Indian shares surrendered the morning’s gains at close on Wednesday, dragged by IT stocks after global major Cognizant reaffirmed weakness in client spending in its quarterly earnings results.

The NSE Nifty 50 index settled 0.01% higher at 21,930.50, while the S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.05% to 72,152.

The Nifty-50 and Sensex rose about 0.5% each earlier in the session.

The Nifty volatility index continued to remain elevated, hovering near a 10-month high of 16.58, hit ahead of the budget on Jan. 30.

“Volatility will remain high, even if the overall sentiment is positive, as investors would be tempted to take some profit every now and then, due to stretched valuations,” said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities.

India’s IT sub-index, the index with the second-highest weightage, dropped 1.25% after US-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions gave a weak revenue forecast for 2024, underscoring weakness in demand.