Bellweather IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) led the combined market valuation drop among India’s most valued companies last week, as the shed a total ₹ ₹2,99,661.36 crore, according to a PTI report.
Reliance Industries (RIL) retained the title of the most valued firm, followed by HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, TCS, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
H-1B visa fee hike, pharma tariffs drag valuations
The slump comes amid a bearish trend in equities, and as United States President Donald Trump unleashed a new whammy of hiked fees on the H-1B workers visa and increased tariffs on pharma imports. The BSE benchmark tanked 2,199.77 points or 2.66 per cent last week.
Notably, among the largest IT sector employers in the US, TCS took the biggest hit. Ponmudi R, CEO of online trading company Enrich Money told PTI that the hike to $1,00,000 in H-1B visa fees (paid by employers), led to “heavy unwinding in technology stocks”.
“Adding to the headwinds, the imposition of 100 per cent tariffs on branded and patented pharmaceutical imports to the US further dampened sentiment, with ripple effects felt across multiple sectors and weighing heavily on market confidence,” Ponmudi R added.
TCS takes biggest hit, feels heat from H-1B visa fee hike
The market valuation of TCS tumbled ₹97,597.91 crore to ₹10,49,281.56 crore, the most among the top-10 firms, as per the report.
Overall, Indian IT stocks have been under pressure for the past five sessions due to the recent H-1B visa rules introduced by the Trump administration. Experts note that while this introduces near-term cost pressures, companies with diversified delivery models and strong offshore operations are likely to absorb the impact without major disruptions.
