LIC cuts stake in Infosys to 3.25%
14 Apr 2014
State-run insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has cut its stake in Infosys to 3.25 per cent in the last quarter, with the share sale estimated at more than Rs850 crore, PTI reported.
The insurer which is the biggest institutional investor in the stock market, held a 3.71 per cent stake in Infosys in the October-December quarter, which fell to 3.25 per cent as of 31 March, 2014.
The state run company had been cutting its stake in Infosys since June quarter. It held a 6.72-per cent stake in the country's second largest software services exporter at the end of 30 June, 2012, latest data available with the stock exchanges showed.
Considering the current market value of Infosys shares, the 0.4 per cent decline in LIC's holding in the company would amount to Rs852 crore. Infosys shares were down at Rs3,235.80 on Friday.
Infosys, which would report its fourth quarter earnings tomorrow, had projected sluggish growth in revenue during the quarter, and the company's CEO and MD Shibulal, had said last month, that he expected sluggish growth in the January-March quarter due to muted spending by clients, especially in retail sector.
He had further stated that muted growth in the fourth quarter of 2013-14 might spill over to the next financial year as well.
Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy returned to head the IT major in June last year, after quarters of lacklustre performance.
The Infosys scrip, meanwhile, had underperformed the broader market, declining nearly 6 per cent as against a 5.7 per cent surge in the BSE's benchmark Sensex during the March quarter.
Meanwhile foreign investors increased their stake in the company to a nine-year high of 42.10 per cent during the January-March period of 2014.
This comes even as the software giant expected sluggish growth in revenue during the quarter.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) held 40.65 per cent stake in the company during the October-December quarter, hiking it to 42.10 at the end of 31 March, 2014, according to the latest information available with the stock exchanges.