Airtel declines on reports of Rs 20,000 crore investment plan

NEW DELHI: Shares of Bharti Airtel fell over 1 per cent in Wednesday's trade after reports that the company is investing a majority of the Rs 20,000 crore in the current fiscal into fourth-generation (4G) technology and fibre-based network.

Following the development, the stock lost 1.26 per cent to Rs 380.80 on BSE. It opened at Rs 383.50 and touched an intraday high and low of Rs 385.60 and Rs 379.60 respectively, till around 10.35 am (IST).

Recently, the company announced deployment of Massive Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology, a key enabler for 5G networks.

According to the report, Project Leap, the MIMO technology will expand existing network capacity by five to seven times.

Promoters held 67.14 per cent stake in the company as of June 2017.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2017, Airtel reported total revenue at 14,506.50 crore and net profit stood at 280.60 crore.

The scrip touched its fresh 52-week high of Rs 438 on August 28, 2017 and its 52-week low of Rs 283.95 on November 9, 2016.