LTIMindtree ducks the H-1B hit

The Nifty IT index has corrected 8% since 19 September, following the hike in H-1B visa fees by US. Each such visa will now cost companies an additional $100,000. With 24,000 visa applications approved for the top five Indian IT firms in H1 FY24 alone, the financial impact adds up.

- Ananya Roy

That said, tier-I IT stocks have held up relatively better, and firms have also found reasonable success with offshoring. Wider margins and deeper pockets have enabled larger firms to scale up US-based hiring, subcontracting, and delivery centres. As a result, while shares of Persistent Systems Ltd, Mphasis Ltd, and Coforge Ltd have fallen 10-14%, Infosys Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd have slipped less than 6%. Some mid-cap IT firms have also shown resilience. A case in point is LTIMindtree Ltd, which is down only 6.4%.