FIIs back at tech counters with a bang

After a quarter's lull, foreign institutional investors are once again queuing up at the information technology counter.

The FIIs had reduced their stakes in frontline IT companies in the first quarter of this financial year.

But the second quarter was different, with FIIs buying an additional 33.7 million equity shares of companies like Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, Mphasis BFL, CMC and i-flex Solutions.

FIIs held 42.9 per cent in Infosys at the end of the September quarter compared with 39.6 per cent in the June quarter and 42.9 per cent in the March quarter. FIIs increased their stakes in Wipro from 2.9 per cent to 3.9 per cent; in TCS, by 0.80 percentage point to 6.90 per cent (6.10 per cent), and in i-flex Solutions to 15.3 per cent (13.6 per cent).

Besides, the FIIs have increased stakes by over 2 per cent each in mid-cap and small technology companies, like Four Soft, Financial Technologies, Rolta, Mastek, Infotech Enterprises, Geometric Software, Visualsoft Technologies, Polaris Software and Moser Baer during the quarter.

In Four Soft (12.1 per cent), Rolta (5.4 per cent), Tata Infotech (1.6 per cent) and Kale Consultant (1.3 per cent), FIIs hold more than one per cent stake at the end of the September quarter against a below-one per cent holding in the June quarter.

FIIs' holdings in Financial Technologies and Mastek have crossed 20 per cent for the first time. In Financial Technologies, FIIs increased their holdings by 5.5 per cent from 15.6 per cent to 20.5 per cent. In Mastek, their holdings went up to 22.8 per cent (19.4 per cent).

In Mphasis BFL, FIIs increased their stakes by 7 per cent from 22.3 per cent to 29.30 per cent in the July-September quarter. FID funds (Mauritius) bought an additional 6.16 per cent stake in Mphasis during the quarter, increasing its holding in the company to 7.98 per cent at the end of the September quarter. Merrill Lynch Capital Markets holds a 3.73 per cent stake against a below one-per cent holding in the previous quarter.