MUMBAI: The ghost of the US H-1B visa is back to haunt India’s information technology companies, which are already bearing the brunt of a global slowdown and trade automation.Shares of Infosys , Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies fell sharply on Friday after a bill backing key changes to the H-1B programme was reintroduced in the US Congress by two lawmakers who claim it will help crack down on abuse of the work visa. The visa allows skilled workers from countries including India to fill hi-tech jobs in the US.Infosys, TCS and Wipro were the biggest laggards on the key BSE Sensex, which fell 119.01points, or 0.44%, to 26,759.23 at the close. The BSE IT index fell 2.54%. TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech together lost over Rs 22,000 crore in market valuation. Investors said they would be in no hurry to buy stocks of IT companies doing business in the US and would wait for the storm to settle. About 60-70% of business for India’s IT companies comes from the US. “I would be a bystander as of now,” said Raamdeo Agrawal, cofounder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services.“This is not the time to go either long or short on IT stocks . But the US visa woes will definitely worsen if the bill became a law.”Infosys fell 2.5% and TCS was down 2.2%. Both stocks have fallen in four of the past five trading sessions. HCL Tech declined 3.55% and Tech Mahindra 3.8%. Among the others, Hexaware Technologies fell 3.73% and Mphasis was down 1.8%.Among other things, the bill increases the salary threshold for H-1B visas to $100,000 annually and eliminates the Master’s degree exemption, which will make US workers competitive with skilled workers from other countries. “Automation in trade was already weighing on IT companies and the US visa woes are definitely going to worsen it,” said Samir Arora, fund manager at Helios Capital.“The $100,000 salary that the bill talks about will definitely add to the cost burden for IT companies. We remain underweight on the sector.”“The key advantage for Indian IT companies was the labour cost arbitrage, but that would no longer be the case once the bill becomes an act and they will lose their edge,” said Rahul Arora, CEO, Institutional Equities, at Nirmal Bang Securities.“With automation in trade gaining ground, Indian IT companies will find it tough to compete organically with the likes of Accenture…Any inorganic growth will incur further cost. We are expecting dollar revenue growth for IT companies between 3-5% for FY18 against 8-10% in FY17.” TCS will report third-quarter earnings on January 12 and Infosys on January 13. Tech Mahindra will report results on January 30. Wipro & HCL Tech have yet to announce their earnings date.