Bharti Airtel Q1 results: Telco may report net loss of Rs 257 cr; share price closes up by 2%

Bharti Airtel share price gained over 2 per cent in intraday trade ahead of its June quarter earnings. The telecom giant will report its Q1FY19 results later in the evening, wherein it is expected to record losses on account of tariff war with Reliance Jio.

According to Zee Business estimates, Bharti Airtel may report net losses at Rs 257 crore. 

Despite expected losses in Q1, the stock gained as much as 2.23 per cent to Rs 359.70, and settled at Rs 357.60, up 1.6 per cent. On a year-to-date basis, the stock is down over 32 per cent against over 8 per cent rally in Sensex.  

Brokerage Elara Capital expects Bharti Airtel to continue strong broadband subscriber additions. It also expects the telecom leader to see some ARPU uplift from SIM consolidation from Reliance Communications and Aircel, but this is not likely to be visible as ARPU decline from downtrading will offset it.

"In April 2018, Bharti Airtel reported SMS gains in 17 out of 22 circles, and we expect the trend to continue over May-June to take subscriber additions to 8.9 mn and overall subscriber base to reach 313.1mn as on end-Q1FY19," it said. 

WATCH ZEE BUSINESS VIDEO HERE

In April 2018, Reliance Jio surpassed Bharti Airtel’s subscriber market share (SMS) in five circles, namely Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Mumbai and West Uttar Pradesh.

Elara remains positive on Bharti Airtel with a Buy rating and a target price of Rs 580.