Shareholders of Infosys Technologies Ltd Saturday told the company management to consider splitting the stock for enabling even small investors to subscribe to its shares.

Participating in the company's 24th annual general meeting (AGM) here, the shareholders said the current stock of Rs.5 per share should be split into five shares of Re.1 to create more liquidity and enable even poor investors to buy its shares.

"To mark the silver jubilee year of the company next year, the management should split the stock into five shares of Re.1 to facilitate the under-privileged sections of society to benefit," said Shivshankarappa, a shareholder.

In response, Infosys chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy said the suggestion was good and the company's board would consider it at an appropriate time.

"It's a good suggestion. If the hearts of the board members are in the same place, we will deliberate on it so as to enable even the less advantaged sections to benefit," Murthy said.

According to the company secretary, the stock was first split in April 2002, dividing one share of Rs.10 into two shares of Rs.5 each. As a result, the total number of shares doubled to about 68 million.

After the company issued 3:1 bonus shares for the fiscal 2003-04, the total number of shares tripled to about 270 million shares.

If the share is split once again with a value of Re.1, the total number of shares will increase to 1.35 billion.