<div>Shares of Tech Mahindra Ltd dropped almost 7 per cent to a more than one-year low on Monday (29 June) after the IT firm warned of a weak first quarter, partly due to higher U.S. visa sponsorship costs for its employees.</div><div> </div><div>Local IT services companies send hundreds of workers to the United States to work on client projects, making them among the top applicants for U.S. visa.</div><div> </div><div>Applications for H-1B visas allowing U.S. businesses to hire foreign workers in science, engineering and computer programming have already reached a record 233,000 in the financial year 2016.</div><div> </div><div>Higher costs of H1-B visas will be a drag on first-quarter margins, Tech Mahindra said earlier in the day without elaborating.</div><div> </div><div>The company also said its mobility business would be a seasonal drag on results in the first quarter.</div><div> </div><div>"Organisation-wide there is renewed focus on improving operational levers and cost-control parameters, however the impact is expected to be visible only from Q3 FY16," the company said in a filing to the exchange.</div><div> </div><div>Tech Mahindra shares were down 7.6 percent at 482 rupees on the NSE as of 1:23 a.m.</div><div> </div><div>(Reuters)</div>
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