LIC cuts stake in Infy to 4.95%; sells Rs 3,400cr shares

Insurance giant's stake was 6.22% in Q1; stake sale comes ecen as FIIs shore up their holdings in the IT company

State-owned life insurer LIC has pared stake in IT major Infosys to 4.95 per cent during the July-September quarter with sale of shares estimated at around Rs 3,400 crore.

The biggest institutional investor in the stock market had 6.72 per cent stake in Infosys during the April-June quarter. As on September 30, it fell to 4.95 per cent as per the latest data available with the stock exchanges.
     
During the January-March quarter, LIC's stake in the country's second largest software services exporter stood at 5.96 per cent.
     

Taking into account the current market value of Infosys shares, the 1.77 percentage points decline in LIC's holding in the company would be worth about Rs 3,400 crore.

     
The Infosys scrip has moved in a wide range from about Rs 2,300 level to around Rs 3,300 in the past 10 months.
     
Currently, it is trading at Rs 3,300 level on the BSE and had touched 52-week high of Rs 3,360 on October 11 after posting quarterly earnings.
     
The July-September period was the first full quarter after co-founder N R Narayana Murthy came out of retirement to become the Executive Chairman of Infosys after it had posted almost two years of disappointing earnings.
     
LIC appears to have sold shares at a time when FIIs marginally shored up their stake.

     
FIIs' holding in Infosys inched up from 39.55 per cent during the April-June quarter, to 39.93 per cent in the July- September period.
     
However, domestic institutional investors shed their holding from 18.28 per cent to 16.16 per cent during the same period, shows the stock exchange data.
     
Infosys reported 1.6 per cent rise in net profit during the July-September quarter and had raised the low-end sales forecast for the 2013-14 fiscal to 9-10 per cent from the previously projected 6-10 per cent.