Indian tech stocks fell nearly 3% Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced late Friday a $100,000 visa fee for new H-1B visas, which are reserved for high-skilled foreign workers. Of the nearly 400,00 H-1B visas issued in 2024, 71% were for Indian nationals.
Nine of the 10 Indian IT companies on the Nifty IT sub-index were down, with losses led by Mphasis, which fell over 4%, Persistent Systems, which was down 3.8% and LTIMindtree, which shed 3.79%.
The new fees could push Indian companies to offshore more employees who are in the United States, Manishi Raychaudhuri, CEO of Emmer Capital Partners, told reporters Monday.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 regained 447.85 points. or 1%, to 45,493.66.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng dropped 200.96 points, or 0.8%, to 26,344.14
Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped over 4% on local media reports that Nvidia had approved the South Korean chipmaker’s fifth-generation high-bandwidth-memory product. The approval reportedly came after several failed attempts spanning almost 18 months to meet Nvidia’s demanding performance standards.
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 edged up 20.69 points, or 0.5%, to 4,522.61, after its central bank kept the loan prime rates (LPR) unchanged for the fourth month in a row, in line with a Reuters poll. 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. The one-year LPR influences most new and outstanding loans, while the five-year rate influences the pricing of mortgages.
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi revived 23.41 points, or 0.7% to 3,468.65
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index let go of 5.34 points, or 0.1%, to 4,297.37.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index zoomed 302.23 points, or 1.2%, to 25,880.60
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 slipped 90.12 points, or 0.7%, to 13,141.54.
In Australia, the ASX 200 gained 37.35 points, or 0.4%, to 8,810.89
