Shares of Tata Communications rose over 8% intraday to Rs 1,784.80 apiece, their highest price in over four months on May 20. The stock rose after falling for two straight sessions during which it lost 2%. Earlier in the day, the company announced the appointment of Ganapathi S Lakshminarayanan as the managing director and chief executive officer of the company for five years effective Wednesday. Earlier in January, the company had disclosed that it had selected Ganapathi as managing director, chief executive officer-designate and will be appointed to the post after regulatory approvals.

"Lakshminarayanan has more than 30 years of international management experience, working with multinational corporations, B2B startups, and Indian enterprises," said Tata Communications in a stock exchange filing.

The appointment followed the retirement of AS Lakshminarayanan as managing director and chief executive officer of the company on Apr. 13. Prior to this, Ganapathi was the managing director, group vice president for ServiceNow – India and SAARC. He had also served as the chief executive officer of Airtel Business in India and Airtel's enterprise business unit.

At 2:30 pm on May 20, shares of the company were trading 7.6% higher at Rs 1,770 apiece and was among the top gainers in the Nifty 200 index. So far in the day, around 2 million shares of the company changed hands on the National Stock Exchange.

Lakshminarayanan has an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Additionally, he holds a BS in Computer Science and Engineering, graduating as a gold medalist from Guindy Engineering College in Chennai.