Uti Raises Rs 1,000 Crore From Infosys Stock Sale

Unit Trust of India (UTI), which has been offloading shares in several blue-chip companies, has raised around Rs 1,000 crore from sale of Infosys shares only. The trust has halved its holding in the company in the last five quarters.

UTI has sold 26 lakh Infosys shares to tide over redemption pressure. Consequently, UTI's holding in the company which was at 8.38 per cent in march last year stands at 4.36 per cent as on june 30. In the last three months the trust offloaded 3.8 lakh shares netting around Rs 140 crore.

Analysts tracking the company said that the sale of shares of is not related to the woes of the technology sector. "UTI has been on a selling spree to meet payment obligations of its various schemes and Infosys being a high-valued stock was a natural choice for the trust".

Over the last year, UTI has offloaded blocks in several blue-chip companies including Reliance, ITC and a host of PSU stocks.

The shareholding pattern of Infosys reinforces the point as institutional investment has actually picked up. institutional investment has increased from 43.33 per cent to 46.03 per cent, during the period, primarily on the back of foreign institutional investors (FII). FII holding, which was at 28.89 per cent in march 2001 is now at 36.28 per cent.

"The scrip which has been moving in the price band of Rs 3,000-3,500 is a good entry point and hence the frenzied buying from the FII side" said analysts.

During the period under consideration, the Infosys scrip touched a high of Rs 5,895 on March 2, 2001 and a low of Rs 2,115 on September 9, 2001.

The scrip closed at Rs 3,320.80, on the last trading day, on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and at 3,310 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).Volumes were significant at 1,95,415 and 3,78,913 on BSE and NSE respectively.

The shareholding pattern of Infosys as on June 30, filed with the stock exchanges indicates that Indian promoters have 28.68 per cent, MFs & UTI 6.67 per cent, banks, FIs, insurance companies hold 3.08 per cent, FIIs 36.28 per cent, private corporate bodies (PCBs) are at 1.53 per cent, Indian public 11.75 per cent, ITL Employees Welfare Trust 1.28 per cent, employees 6.37 per cent, Bankers Trust Company 3.2 per cent and NRIs/OCBs a paltry 1.17 per cent.