Jefferies Downgrades Indian IT Stocks Cites AI

Jefferies downgraded Infosys, HCLTech and Mphasis to "hold" and LTI MindTree, TCS and Hexaware to "underperform" this month, while naming Coforge, Sagility and IKS as top picks and trimming earnings estimates by 1–4%. It projects 6% earnings CAGR for FY26–28, believes markets price revenue CAGRs of 6–14% (large) and 9–17% (mid-sized) for FY26–36, and warns of AI-driven deflation in application-managed services.