Bharti Airtel gains over 5% despite weak Q2 performance

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel Ltd rose as much as 5 per cent in morning trade on Wednesday, after the telecom major reported 25.7 per cent sequential drop in its net profit number for the second quarter ended September 30, to Rs 512 crore.

Bharti Airtel reported a net profit of Rs 689 crore in the previous quarter. Analysts polled by ET Now had estimated the telecom operator to report a net profit number of Rs 777.5 crore for the quarter ended September 30.

At 09:30 a.m.; Bharti Airtel was trading 5.2 per cent higher at Rs 358. It has hit a low of Rs 335 and a high of Rs 359.60 in trade today on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

However, on the National Stock Exchange the stock was trading 5.08 per cent higher at Rs 358.45. It has hit a low of Rs 334.20 and a high of Rs 359.90 in trade today.

On a year-on-year basis, Bharti Airtel reported a 30 per cent drop in its net profit number from Rs 721.20 crore reported in the year-ago period.

However, revenues managed to scale above 5 per cent sequentially to Rs 21,324 crore as compared for the quarter ended September 30, from Rs 20,264 crore reported in the previous quarter.

Forex loss narrowed to Rs 342 crore in the second quarter of the financial year ending 2014as compared to Rs 534 crore reported in the previous quarter.