Vishal Sikka’s exit as the CEO of Infosys and the unpleasantness surrounding the departure saw the Infosys stock plummet around 10 per cent last Friday, with further losses earlier this week. All investor categories were hit; this includes mutual funds — holding more than 9 per cent of the stock — that have seen wealth erosion of about ₹3,000 crore over the last three days.
Despite the many challenges facing the Indian software industry, mutual funds on the whole have big bets on Infosys, long considered a bellwether of the sector. As of July 2017, the overall mutual fund industry held investments of around ₹21,285 crore in the Infosys stock. Data compiled from NAVIndia shows that as of July 31, 2017, out of the 782 equity-related mutual fund schemes, the Infosys stock was part of 421 schemes. The stock is among the top five holdings in 222 schemes, and is the top holding in 19 schemes.
Among the fund houses, HDFC (₹5,165 crore), ICICI Prudential (₹3,286 crore), and Reliance (₹2,667 crore) held the maximum investment in the stock as of July 31, 2017.
IT sector funds such as SBI IT (35.6 per cent of its corpus), Aditya Birla SL New Millennium (31 per cent), Tata Digital India (25.5 per cent), ICICI Pru Technology (23.5 per cent) and Franklin India Technology Fund (16.3 per cent) have the maximum exposure to the Infosys stock.
Among the equity-oriented diversified and balanced fund schemes, Reliance Vision (9.3 per cent of its corpus), UTI-Dividend Yield (8.2 per cent) and Aditya Birla Sun Life India Opportunities Fund (8 per cent) have the highest exposure to the Infosys stock.
Large schemes with big holdings in Infosys include HDFC Prudence (6 per cent of its corpus worth ₹1,757 crore), HDFC Equity (6.1 per cent of its corpus worth ₹1,305 crore), SBI ETF Nifty 50 (5.5 per cent worth ₹1,178 crore), ICICI Pru Value Discovery (4.1 per cent worth ₹870 crore) and HDFC Top 200 Fund (3.7 per cent worth ₹780 crore).
These funds, as also other investors in Infosys, would have had some relief on Wednesday, with the stock rebounding nearly 3 per cent. This was on news that Nandan Nilekani, who held the position of CEO at the firm between 2002 and 2007, may be back in the saddle.