As IT companies HCL Tech and TCS have come out with stunning performances in the latest September quarter, the important question is whether the retail investors are missing out the IT growth story even in an uncertain market environment.

With three of the four IT majors (except Wipro) coming out with September quarter results, all the three have seen reduced retail investor stake in the September quarter compared with March quarter this year. It was only in case of Wipro that retail investors’ have upped their stake. . In fact, their share outweighs that of institutional investors whereas in the case of Infosys, TCS and HCL Tech, retail investors have trimmed their holdings.

Via Primary market

HCL Tech had increased the investment limit by the FIIs through the primary market and stock exchanges up to 30 per cent. Foreign investors’ stake in the company, was much below the enhanced limit, at 20.31 per cent in September endbut higher than 19.42 per cent at the end of March. DIIs too have hiked their stake from 8.40 per cent to 9.33 per cent. But the promoters and other investors, including individual investors, have been reducing their stake in the company, according to the BSE data. Infosys is the only IT company among the four IT majors in which the promoters hold a minority stake at 16.04 per cent as on September 30. Despite its rather unimpressive show, FIIs have jacked up their stake from 39.02 per cent in March to 39.42 per cent in September. DIIs stake has gone up from 16.57 per cent at the end of March to 18.33 per cent in September this year. But others, including retail investors, do not seem to share this optimism and have cut their holdings to 26.21 per cent at the end of September, from 28.37 per cent in March this year.

>yegya.narayanan@thehindu.co.in

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