The key domestic indices declined in afternoon trade, as investor sentiment was dented by the Trump administration’s new H-1B visa policy, which imposes a one-time $100,000 fee on new applicants. The measure is viewed as a setback for India’s IT sector. Trump’s decision overshadowed the impact of recent GST measures. The Nifty traded below 25,300 level.
IT, Pharma and consumer durables stocks tumbled while realty, metal and media shares advanced.
At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex declined 236.74 points or 0.29% to 82,391.19. The Nifty 50 index fell 47.25 points or 0.19% to 25,283.30.
The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.28% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.21%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 2,006 shares rose and 2,177 shares fell. A total of 180 shares were unchanged.
Gainers & Losers:
Adani Enterprises (up 4.19%), Bajaj Auto (up 2.16%), Eternal (up 1.84%), Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) (up 1.80%) and Hero Motorcorp (up 1.45%) were the major Nifty50 gainers.
Tech Mahindra (down 3.73%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 2.97%), Infosys (down 2.62%), Wipro (down 2.08%) and HCL Technologies (down 1.87%) were the major Nifty50 losers.
Stocks in Spotlight:
IT stocks fell sharply on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a hefty one-time fee of $100,000 on new H-1B visa applications. The new fee will apply only to fresh applicants and will not affect existing visa holders or renewals.
Tech Mahindra (down 3.73%), Persistent Systems (down 3.68%), LTIMindtree (down 3.68%), Mphasis (down 3.36%), Coforge (down 3.89%), Infosys (down 2.48%), HCL Technologies (down 1.87%), Wipro (down 2.08%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 2.97%) tumbled.
Hexaware Technologies declined 6.70%. The company stated that, based on its current assessment, the recent fee hikes announced by U.S. authorities for new visa petitions are expected to have an immaterial impact on the company. The company further said that it has been reducing its dependency on H-1B filings in the last few years. As a matter of fact, the company has not made any fresh applications under the H-1B cap in April 2025.
Netweb Technologies India rallied 5.88% after the company announced that it has secured a purchase order valued at approximately Rs 450 crore for the supply and deployment of its advanced Tyrone AI GPU-accelerated systems.
Rajesh Exports declined 4.16% after the company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 9.53 crore in Q1 FY26 compared with net profit of Rs 11.86 crore in Q1 FY25. Revenue from operations surged 117.9% to Rs 1,31,541.80 crore in Q1 FY26 as compared with Rs 60,355 crore in Q1 FY25.
Likhami Consulting hit a lower circuit of 2% after the company announced that Babu Lal Jain has resigned from his position as managing director and chief executive officer, effective at the close of business on 30 September 2025.
PTC Industries rose 1.93% after the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Aerolloy Technologies, announced the commissioning of a Vacuum Arc Remelting (VAR) 400 furnace. The facility is located at the Aerospace Precision Castings Plant in the Strategic Materials Technology Complex (SMTC) within the UP Defence Industrial Corridor in Lucknow.
Rossell Techsys rallied 6.36% after the company has signed a long-term Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with Boeing for manufacturing electrical panel assemblies for the T-7A Red Hawk. Under the agreement, the company can produce up to 1,200 shipsets through 2033. The T-7A Red Hawk is Boeing’s fully digitally designed, built and tested training aircraft.
Global Markets:
European market declined as investors are awaited for euro zone consumer confidence data.
Asia market traded mixed on Monday as investors assessed China’s key lending rate decision.
China’s Central Bank kept the loan prime rates (LPR) unchanged for the fourth month in a row. The decision to stand pat comes after the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its rates by 25 basis points last week.
The People’s Bank of China kept the one-year LPR unchanged at 3.0% while the five-year LPR remained at 3.5%, according to a statement Monday.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, opens new tab on worker visas kept sentiment in check.
The focus will be on Indian and tech stocks after the Trump administration said on Friday it would ask companies to make a one-time payment of $100,000 for new H-1B worker visas, a blow to the tech sector that relies on skilled workers from India and China.
US stocks notched fresh highs on Friday amid a record-setting rally as the US and China advanced trade talks and the ‘magnificent seven’ tech stocks continued to climb.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% and the S&P 500 jumped nearly 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led gains, adding about 0.7%, as Apple stock rallied on optimism over its new iPhones hitting store shelves.
Investors on Friday were focused on details from Trump's conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The US president said in a post on Truth Social following the talks, "We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal."