FIIs hike stake in Infosys to 43% in Jul-Sep quarter

Emerging as one of the most-liked stocks for foreign funds, Infosys has seen overseas investors raising their stake in the company to a nine and half-year high of nearly 42.67 percent during the quarter ended September 2014.

However, the exact date of share purchased by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) could not be ascertained.

Infosys new chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director Vishal Sikka took charge of the company in August.

Cumulative FII holdings in the company rose to 42.67 per cent in the July-September quarter this year from 39.93 per cent in three months ended September last year, according to data from stock exchanges.

This is the highest level of FII holding in the country's second largest software services firm since March 2005, when their stake in Infosys stood at 42.87 per cent.

In the April-June quarter of 2014, FIIs' holding in Infosys stood at 41.58 percent.

The rise in overseas shareholding of Infosys coincides with overall bullishness shown by foreign entities in the Indian stock market.

During the July-September quarter, Infosys shares surged by more than 14 per cent, as against 4.78 percent gain in BSE's benchmark Sensex.

In the same period, FIIs invested a staggering sum of over Rs 23,000 crore in the Indian equities on the back of ongoing reform initiatives taken by the Centre.

Sikka, the first outsider as well as not part of the co-founder's club to lead the Bangalore-based firm, was the head of technology and innovation department at German software giant SAP.

Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy stepped down in June, four years before his tenure was to end. He was brought back to head the IT major in June last year, following quarters of laggard performance.

Besides, the overall holding of institutional investors also rose to 57.15 percent during July-September period of this year from 55.56 per cent at the end of June 30, 2014, mostly on account of additional share purchases by FIIs.

The domestic institutional holdings in the company stood at 14.48 per cent as on September 30, 2014, up from 14.08 per cent in April-June quarter of 2014.