Stock markets decline in early trade dragged by IT firms on US H-1B visa fee hike concerns

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty dropped in early trade on Monday, dragged by IT stocks amid concerns over the US President Donald Trump's decision to raise H-1B visa fees to USD 1,00,000 per worker. The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 475.16 points to 82,151.07 in opening trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 88.95 points to 25,238.10. From the Sensex firms, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Tech and Tata Consultancy Services were trading lower in the range of 3.88 to 2.26 per cent. Sun Pharma, Bharat Electronics, Axis Bank and Tata Steel were also among the laggards. However, Adani Ports, Eternal, Trent and Bajaj Finance were among the gainers.

President Trump on Friday signed a proclamation raising the fee on the visas used by companies to hire workers, including from India, to live and work in the US. The H-1B visa fee of USD 1,00,000 would be applicable only to new applicants, a White House official clarified on Saturday. "The market is likely to witness a dualistic behaviour today with the IT sector getting impacted by the H-1B visa issue and the domestic consumption themes responding to the potential big boost to consumption coming from the lower GST rates kicking in from today," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said. In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index and Shanghai's SSE Composite index traded in positive territory while Hong Kong's Hang Seng quoted lower. US markets ended higher on Friday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.66 per cent to USD 67.12 a barrel. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 390.74 crore on Friday, according to exchange data. On Friday, the Sensex tanked 387.73 points or 0.47 per cent to settle at 82,626.23. The Nifty declined 96.55 points or 0.38 per cent to 25,327.05.