Mutual funds take a ₹13,000 crore hit as IT stocks stumble after H-1B visa shock

As per the data, mutual funds held their biggest stake in Infosys at ₹1.31 lakh crore, followed by TCS with ₹62,000 crore in MF investments and HCL Technologies at ₹35,850 crore as of September 19. Other notable exposures included Coforge (₹21,720 crore), Persistent Systems (₹18,900 crore), Mphasis (₹13,240 crore), Wipro (₹11,600 crore), LTIMindtree (₹8,189 crore), and Oracle Financial Services Software (₹4,348 crore).

Triggered by the broad-based sell-off, mutual fund holdings in Infosys dropped by ₹4,626.6 crore today, from ₹1,31,482.1 crore to ₹1,26,855.5 crore. TCS saw a reduction of ₹2,051.9 crore, while Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech witnessed declines of ₹1,679.9 crore and ₹1,153.8 crore, respectively.

Other firms, including Coforge, Persistent Systems, Mphasis, Wipro, LTIMindtree, and Oracle Financial Services, recorded outflows ranging from ₹762 crore to ₹58 crore. Wipro’s MF holdings fell by ₹402.5 crore, LTIMindtree by ₹425.8 crore, and Oracle Financial Services by ₹58.1 crore.

According to ICICI Securities, the $100,000 levy on onsite employees on H-1B visas would imply around a 100 basis points (bps) average headwind on margins and a 6% average impact on earnings per share (EPS), assuming IT companies continue to employ new people on H-1B visas.