Voda-Idea deal talks set select AB Group stocks like UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries on fire

NEW DELHI: Most of the shares of Aditya Birla Group of companies advanced on Monday after the Vodafone confirmed that it is in discussions with the group about an all share merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.

Cheering on the announcement, shares of Idea Cellular surged nearly 30 per cent intraday after the announcement. The scrip closed 25.90 per cent up at Rs 97.95.

“Any merger would be effected through the issue of new shares in Idea to Vodafone and would result in Vodafone deconsolidating Vodafone India,” Vodafone PLC said in a filing.

Other stocks such as UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries closed higher by 0.38 per cent and 4.46 per cent, respectively. However, benchmark BSE Sensex settled 32.90 points down at 27849.56.

Shares of Aditya Birla Nuvo also surged nearly 9 per cent intraday during the day.

Hindalco Industries, the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, closed higher by 0.45 per cent up at Rs 191.55.

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail was trading almost flat at Rs 148.80.