Bharti Airtel Surges 6%, Buoyed By Idea's Stellar Q1

Shares in Bharti Airtel, India's largest carrier surged nearly 6 per cent to Rs 356.80 on Tuesday as traders bet on the stock on expectations of better earnings post stellar set of numbers reported by its rival Idea Cellular for the April-June quarter.

Idea numbers were positive on all fronts. Idea's monthly average revenue per user, an important metric for the telecom industry to evaluate the health of telecoms carriers, rose 4.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs. 181 and average realisation per minute, another key metric, rose to Rs. 0.45 from Rs. 0.44 in the fourth quarter.

Mayuresh Joshi, vice president (Institution) at Angel Broking says "Looking at Idea's performance, Bharti Airtel should be able to give strong set of numbers on all parameters like ARPU and MoU."

Traders see Idea's numbers as an indicator of revival in the telecom sector.

As per analysts poll done by NDTV, Bharti Airtel is likely to post 7 per cent y-o-y growth in its India revenue compared to 15 per cent growth reported by Idea and its revenue per minute is expected to grow 1.4 per cent against 2 per cent in case of Idea.

Bharti Airtel which operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa and is the world's fourth-biggest cellular carrier by customers had reported 89 per cent year-on-year jump in its net profit to Rs 962 crore for the quarter ended March 2014. It was the second consecutive quarter of profit growth for Bharti Airtel.

As of 10.18 a.m. Bharti Airtel shares were up 4.77 per cent to trade at Rs 353.30 compared to 0.59 per cent gain in Nifty.

(With inputs from Reuters)