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Infosys outguns US majors on Nasdaq

NetScribes/Abhijit Basu

Stand aside Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco and Intel. India's own Infosys is rewriting the returns rankings on tech-heavy Nasdaq. Consider this: $100 invested in Infy 18 months ago would be worth much more today than the same invested in global majors like Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco or Intel.

That Infy has scorched a blazing trail at the Mecca of tech stocks is evident by pitting the stock's relative price performance over the past one and a half years against an array of industry heavyweights' performances.

Infy has grossly outscored the scrips that made the world's two richest men - Bill Gates of Microsoft and Larry Ellison of Oracle. On a relative performance, the Indian e-services company has also scored over networking giant Cisco and chip major Intel. We are not really comparing apples and oranges. But in the investment world, it hardly matters what industry you invest in as long as you rake in the returns. Read on.

Infy, which debuted on the Nasdaq on March 11, 1999, was trading at an adjusted price of $143.75 on Wednesday - a premium of 513.66 per cent to its listing price. It has been a long ride for the scrip which plunged to $23.425 on its Day One at Nasdaq after opening at $34 - a trip during which it witnessed premiums of a staggering 1,200 per cent.

Compare this to a heavyweight like Microsoft, which was trading at $80.7188 (split-adjusted) on March 11, 1999, closed on November 1, 2000 at $69.625. Effectively, the Microsoft scrip has dipped 13.74 per cent ever since Infy made an appearance on Nasdaq. To be fair, Microsoft did have its share of problems with the US Department of Justice on its anti-trust case, which dragged the stock down.

Interestingly, Infy hit its all-time high on March 6, 2000.

But look at other technology stocks on the Nasdaq - software or hardware. Microsoft's arch-rival Oracle was trading at $9.2188 in March 1999, and has effectively risen 240.33 per cent to $31.375 per cent as on November 1, 2000.

World's largest chip maker Intel's scrip, which was trading at $29.4679 in March 1999, closed 52.28 per cent higher at $44.875 on November 1, 2000.

Meanwhile, networking heavyweight Cisco rose 97.63 per cent to touch $52.125 per cent yesterday from $26.375 in March last year.

Stock prices of all companies are adjusted for splits.

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