By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks were muted on Thursday after four straight sessions of losses, as persistent foreign outflows and fresh U.S. visa curbs kept investors on edge.
The Nifty 50 slipped 0.1% to 25,032.3, while the BSE Sensex eased 0.11% to 81,629.98 as of 10:12 a.m. IST.
Nine of the 16 major sectors advanced, while small- and mid-cap indexes rose about 0.1% each.
The Nifty has shed 1.4% over the last four sessions.
Investor sentiment weakened after the U.S. announced a $100,000 fee for fresh H-1B visa applications, raising concerns over higher costs for Indian IT firms that draw a large share of their revenue from the U.S.
On Wednesday, foreign portfolio investors sold 24.26 billion rupees ($273.43 million) worth of equities, taking net September outflows to $1.32 billion.
“Markets remain weighed down by U.S. tariffs, visa reforms, and relentless foreign selling,” said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Religare Broking. “A short-term breather is possible after the recent decline, but any upside looks capped until private banks and IT show real recovery.”
Energy stocks rose 0.4% after two sessions of losses, with ONGC and Oil India up 1.2% and 3.1%, respectively, tracking crude’s seven-week high. Higher oil prices directly boost earnings for upstream producers.
Consumer goods climbed 0.3%, led by Britannia Industries and Nestle, each up about 0.7%, after HSBC upgraded both to “hold” from “reduce,” citing potential earnings recovery from tax cuts.
Meanwhile, autos extended declines, falling 0.7% as profit-taking followed Tuesday’s record high. Tata Motors dropped 2.5% after the Financial Times report flagged a major cyberattack at its JLR unit, with losses possibly exceeding its entire FY25 profit.
Among individual stocks, Fineotex Chemicals surged 14.3% ahead of a board meeting to consider an interim dividend, stock split and bonus issue. Newgen Software jumped 5% on winning two contracts.
($1 = 88.7260 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
