The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty ended the day down 63 points and 15 points, respectively on the back of weak global cues and news of increased cost of processing H-1B US visas. The Sensex closed at 17,058, while the Nifty closed at 5,178.
Local media in the United States reported that the cost of processing the employment visas for the country would be increased. Due to this, IT stocks took a hit during the day and were the biggest losers.
“The markets were range-bound during the day. The F&O settlement also had some bearing on the markets. Although the IT stocks were losers, there was some recovery in the banking stocks,” said Mr Shrikant Shetty, Equity Research and Technical Analysis, Unicon Financial Intermediaries.
On the global front, European stocks were down for the third day as there was news that Greece may have to restructure its debt again. The European markets were down by nearly 0.9 per cent each and the Asian markets were down by around 1 per cent each. American markets were also down by 0.5 per cent each.
Top gainers on the BSE were Jindal Steel, Tata Power and Hero MotoCorp, while L&T, Infosys and TCS were the top losers.