SENSEX falls 148 points, NIFTY50 below 25,300 as IT stocks weigh; Tech Mahindra, Wipro top laggards

The Indian stock market opened lower on Monday, September 22, dragged down by IT stocks following the announcement from the US of a hefty annual fee for new H-1B visa petitions.

The US President Donald Trump signed the executive order to raise the fees of H1-B visa holders to $100,000 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.

At 9:30 AM, the S&P BSE SENSEX fell 148.15 points, or 0.18%, to the 82,478.08 level, while NSE’s NIFTY50 was at the 25,296.45 level, losing 30.60 points, or 0.12%.

Among sectors, Nifty IT fell the most, tumbling 2.5%, followed by Nifty Pharma. All other sectors, however, were trading with gains, with Nifty Realty taking the lead (0.69%).

The broader market also slipped in the early session, with Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 declining marginally by 0.01% and 0.03%, respectively.

On Friday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth ₹390.74 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹2,105.22 crore on a net basis, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors have pulled out ₹7,945 crore from Indian equities so far in September, weighed down by global uncertainties such as tariffs and persistent geopolitical tensions.

Globally, Asian shares edged higher, led by Japan's Nikkei, after the central bank eased concerns over plans to offload its massive exchange-traded fund holdings.

Nikkei rose 1.55%, Australia's S&P ASX 200 advanced 0.28%, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.03% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.84%.

As many as 30 stocks advanced in the early session on the NIFTY50 index, while 20 declined.

Tech Mahindra was the biggest laggard, declining 3.87%, followed by TCS (-2.18%), Wipro (-2.13%), Infosys (-1.97%) and HCL Technologies (-1.82%).

On the flip side, Adani Enterprises (3.07%), SBI Life Insurance (2.01%), HDFC Life Insurance (1.45%), Adani Ports (1.39%) and Eternal (1.25%) were the biggest-gaining stocks on the 50-share index.