Infosys, an Indian information technology (IT) bellwether, saw its shares drop to a five-month low of Rs 1,419.60, down 1% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) during intra-day trading on Tuesday. This is the lowest the stock has been since October 10, 2022.
The stock has been down 4% in the past two days after the company announced on Saturday that Mohit Joshi, the President of the company, has resigned, effective March 11, 2023. After March 11, Joshi will be on leave, and his last date with the company will be June 9, 2023, according to Infosys.
This marks the second high-level exit from the company in the last three months. ICICI Securities notes that given Joshi’s numerous responsibilities, including P&L responsibility of Financial services, insurance, Healthcare & Lifesciences vertical, Software products & Platforms business, Sales operations, and Large deals, there may be near-term vulnerability, especially in BFSI, Products space, and large deal space. However, the brokerage firm does not see any long-term implications, as the second tier leadership is already in place at the company.
In the last month, the stock has dropped 11%, following the closure of an open market buyback offer. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex has decreased 5% during the same period. Infosys purchased 60.4 million shares or 1.44% of the total equity capital at an average of Rs 1,539 apiece, according to exchange data. The average buyback price was 16.6% below the maximum offer price of Rs 1,850.
Over the past year, Infosys has underperformed the market, dropping 25%, compared to the S&P BSE Sensex, which has increased by 2.6%.