IT stocks tumble for fourth straight day as H-1B worries mount; TCS, Coforge weigh on Nifty IT

IT stocks continued to slide for the fourth day in a row on Thursday, September 25, as the staggering hike in the US H-1B visa fees continues to hurt investor sentiment.

The stock of Infobeans Technologies dropped 2.64%, Tata Consultancy Services declined 2.50%, Hexaware Technologies lost 1.91%, HCL Technologies dipped 1.31%, Wipro fell by 1.06%, Infosys (0.64%) and Tech Mahindra (0.61%).

After touching an intraday low of 34,460.30 level, the Nifty IT index closed at ₹34,548.30, losing 1.27%. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) led the losses, slipping 2.55%, while Coforge and Persistent declined 1.80% and 1.68%, respectively.

The Indian IT stocks were in focus as the new H1 B visa rules are expected to dent margins for the IT companies. The US President Donald Trump signed the executive order to raise the fees of H-1B Visa holders to $1,00,000 annually. The new executive order is expected to adversely impact all IT companies that have their professionals working in the US on H1 B visas.

Since last Friday, from the blue-chip stocks, Tech Mahindra has tanked 7%, TCS lost 6.60%, Wipro fell by 5.52%, Infosys declined 3.61%, and HCL Tech dropped 2.99%.

TCS has lost ₹75,798.93 crore in market valuation since last Friday, while Infosys faced an erosion of ₹23,119.19 crore, Wipro's market cap declined by ₹14,799.36 crore, that of HCL Tech (by ₹11,940.12 crore) and Tech Mahindra (by ₹10,729.9 crore). Together, these five firms have lost ₹1,36,387.5 crore in market valuation in four days.

Stock market today

The Indian stock market declined for the fifth consecutive session on Thursday, tracking weak global cues and weighed down by losses in realty and IT stocks.

Ongoing foreign investor outflows, along with concerns over the sharp hike in U.S. H-1B visa fees, continue to dampen market sentiment.

At close, the S&P BSE SENSEX stood at the 81,159.68 level, falling 555.95 points, or 0.68%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index slumped 166.05 points, or 0.66%, to settle at the 24,890.85 level.

Barring Nifty Metal, which edged up 0.22%, all sectoral indices ended in the red. Nifty Realty led the decline with a sharp fall of 1.65%, followed by Nifty IT (-1.27%), Nifty Pharma (-0.92%), Nifty Auto (-0.92%), and Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.72%).

On the NIFTY50, 43 stocks ended in the red, while only 7 advanced on Thursday. Trent emerged as the top laggard, slipping 3.61%, followed by Power Grid (-3.10%), Tata Motors (-2.64%), Tata Consultancy Services (-2.55%), and Asian Paints (-2.17%).