The stock of Bharati Airtel hit a record high of Rs 591.95 despite reporting loss of Rs 5237 crore for the quarter ended in March 2020. It posted a consolidated loss of Rs 1,035.3 crore in the December quarter and a profit of Rs 107.2 crore in the March quarter in 2019.The consolidated revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 23,723 crore, against Rs 21,947.1 crore in December quarter and Rs 20,602.2 crore in March 2019.
The company posted exceptional items totaling Rs 7,004 crore during the quarter ended on March 31, 2020. The Indian mobile revenue growth was led by a 14 percent QoQ jump in ARPU. CLSA maintained a buy rating with a buy target of Rs 670 per share while Credit Suisse maintained a Outperform Rating with a price target of Rs 600.
Earlier Reliance Jio reported its quarterly numbers standalone revenue from operations including access revenues stood at 14,835 crore. It posted standalone EBITDA of 6,201 crore and EBITDA margin of 41.8% whereas standalone net profit stood at 2,331 crore. The ARPU during the quarter was 130.6 per subscribers per month.
Reliance Jio revealed that the total wireless data traffic during the quarter stood at 1,284 crore GB, registering a 34.3% year-over-year growth. The total voice traffic during the quarter stood at 87,634 crore minutes, with a 21.1 year-on-year growth. The average data consumption per user per month was 11.3 GB and average voice consumption of 771 minutes per user per month, said Reliance Jio.
Also Jio Platforms has raised Rs 67,194.75 crore from technology investor powerhouses such as Facebook, Silver Lake Partners, Vista Equity Partners and General Atlantic in less than four weeks. CLSA maintained a buy rating with a buy target of Rs 1770 per share while Morgan Stanley maintained a Overweight rating with a price target of Rs 1544 per share.
Taking into account that the telecom industry’s contribution to GDP is estimated to reach 8.2% by end 2020 and the Modi government plans to make India 5G-ready by 2020 puts the telecom sector on a sweet spot thus making it a safe bet for the investors.