Bharti Airtel shares rally as SingTel pledges support

MUMBAI: Shares of Bharti Airtel surged in trade after Singapore Telecommunications ( SingTel), the largest foreign investor in Bharti Airtel urged India's biggest telecom operator to lead the 'consolidation drive' in the domestic telecom market and said it will support such moves.

At 11:09 a.m.; the stock pared some of its gains to trade at Rs 351.40, up 4.16 per cent, on the BSE. It touched a high of Rs 358.75 and a low of Rs 343 in trade today.

"We would like to see Bharti lead the consolidation of the market," said SingTel Chairman Simon Israel, in an exclusive interview with ET.

SingTel chairman's remarks come a few days after Vodafone India CEO Martin Pieters said his company saw itself as a 'natural consolidator' in the domestic sector.

"India desperately needs consolidation. Globally, the mobile industry is a scale game," said Israel. "My observation in Asia is there are three players in every market, with the rest in the fringes. India is a bigger market, so maybe it can have 5-6 players."