Surprise $100K H‑1B Fee Shocks Markets; White House Clarifies

The surprise U.S. move to impose a one-time $100,000 fee on H‑1B applicants, along with tariff uncertainty, drove foreign portfolio investors to sell Indian equities and pushed the rupee to a record intraday low of 88.76 against the dollar. Equity benchmarks traded lower for multiple sessions, leaving the Nifty around the 25,200 zone, while the tech‑heavy Nifty IT index fell about 2.8–3%; large caps including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra and midcaps such as LTIMindtree, Mphasis, Persistent and Coforge posted sharp declines. Brokers warned the levy will raise hiring costs in the U.S., constrain talent supply, potentially delay deal ramp‑ups and hurt margins and revenue growth for Indian IT firms, which could reduce equity inflows and remittances. The White House later clarified the levy applies only to new H‑1B applicants, but confusion and market fear persisted and contributed to continued FPI selling and market unease.