Bharti Airtel ends 2% down post September quarter earnings

Shares of Bharti Airtel pared all morning gains and skidded 3 per cent in trade on Monday even as the telecom operator reported a rise of 10 per cent in consolidated net profit year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 1522.7 crore for the second quarter as against Rs 1383.2 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

The stock ended 1.91 per cent down after hitting an intraday low of Rs 347.30, down 3.19 per cent, on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The company reported a fall of 54.96 per cent y-o-y at Rs 2223.7 crore in its standalone net profit.

Total revenue of the telecom major rose 4.3 per cent to Rs 23,836 crore for the reported period compared with Rs 22,845 crore last year.

Consolidated mobile data revenues grew 49.8 per cent to Rs 3,806 crore, boosted by data traffic growth of 76.3 per cent.

"Airtel's revenue growth in India has accelerated to 13.3 per cent in Q2 on an underlying basis, the highest in the last 12 quarters. With the commercial launch of 4G services across 334 towns and roll-out of 3G services in our gap circles, we are now best positioned in the industry to leverage the fast growing data market," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said.

The company had a gain of Rs 1044 crore in Q2 from the divestment of telecom towers in Zambia, Uganda and Kenya, said Bharti Airtel in a filing to BSE.

Management commentary is not encouraging, said the traders.

(With inputs from agencies)