US President-elect Joe Biden plans to increase number of high-skilled visas, including the H-1B visas.
Shares of information technology companies surged in today’s session after a report suggested that the US President-elect Joe Biden planned to ease policy on work visas. The report triggered buying interest in the IT companies which depend on work visas to send their employees to work for their clients in US, the biggest market for Indian IT services companies.
Gauge of 10 IT shares on the National Stock Exchange – Nifty IT index – climbed as much as 2 per cent with all, but one share, in the index trading higher.
US President-elect Joe Biden plans to increase the number of high-skilled visas, including the H-1B, and eliminate the limit on employment-based visas by country, both of which are expected to benefit tens of thousands of Indian professionals impacted by some immigration policies of the outgoing Trump administration, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
“High skilled temporary visas should not be used to disincentivise recruiting workers already in the US for in-demand occupations. An immigration system that crowds out high-skilled workers in favour of only entry level wages and skills threatens American innovation and competitiveness,” according to a policy document issued by the Biden campaign.
“Biden will work with Congress to first reform temporary visas to establish a wage-based allocation process and establish enforcement mechanisms to ensure they are aligned with the labour market and not used to undermine wages. Then, Biden will support expanding the number of high-skilled visas and eliminating the limits on employment-based visas by country, which create unacceptably long backlogs,” it said.
Coforge Limited was top gainer among the IT shares, the stock rose 3 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 2,285. Larsen & Toubro Infotech, Infosys, tech Mahindra, Wipro, TCS, Mphasis, Mindtree and HCL Technologies were also trading higher.
Meanwhile, the gains in IT stock boosted the Sensex and Nifty to surge to record highs earlier in the session.
As of 11:43 am, the IT index was up 1 per cent in line with gains in the benchmark Nifty 50 index.