Vodafone Idea delays spectrum auction installment; shares rise

Telecom Stocks to Watch: Vodafone Idea is trading higher by 0.64 per cent to Rs 7.87 in early morning trading after a report on Thursday said that the company had sought 30 days more time to pay around Rs 1,680 crore for the spectrum auction instalment.

The share is up following a report from ICRA on Wednesday that projected modest revenue growth for the telecom industry in FY24.

Among other major telecom stocks on Thursday, Bharti Airtel is down 0.27 per cent, while Railtel is also trading 1.01 per cent lower, amid a report on Wednesday which said that telecom firms like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea are expected to increase their workforce by 25 per cent.

GTL Infra, meanwhile, is trading higher by 1.32 per cent.

ZeeBiz takes you through the overall performance of the leading telecom shares.

Bharti Airtel

The share hit the day's high of Rs 859.65 early in the morning before slipping 0.27 per cent to Rs 854.70 on Thursday.

The share has slipped 3.06 per cent in the last five trading sessions, while its fall in the last one month has been 0.51 per cent.

The Nifty 50, meanwhile, has slipped 0.98 per cent in the last five trading sessions and 1.62 per cent in the last one month.

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said that claims worth Rs 45,286.76 crore are against the company and its subsidiaries and are undergoing litigation in various courts of the country.

Vodafone Idea

Vodafone Idea's shares are trading 0.64 per cent higher at Rs 7.87 after a report quoting one of the telecom company's top officials said that it had sought 30 days more time to pay around Rs 1,680 crore for the spectrum installment due on Thursday.

The company has reportedly proposed to pay the amount with interest.

Vodafone Idea's share trading higher on Thursday is a change from its lacklustre performance in the last five sessions, when it has slipped 5.52 per cent.

The off-colour show is also because the company's Q1 FY24 profit losses widened to Rs 7,840 crore as per its BSE filing early this week.

The company's share has jumped 3.15 per cent in the last one month, but it has slid 12.56 per cent in the last year compared to an 8.07 per cent rise of the Nifty 50 during the same period.

GTL Infra

GTL Infra also started its day on a high note as the penny stock was trading 1.32 per cent higher at Rs 0.77 in morning trading hours on Thursday.

It was a change for the share as it has performed poorly on the BSE for most part of the last one year.

It has slipped 2.56 per cent in the last month, but its slide in the last one year is as low as 43.70 per cent.

GTL announced its Q1 results last week, reporting a fall of 2.12 per cent in its net sales year-on-year.

Railtel

The share of Railtel was trading 1.01 per cent down at Rs 171.90 in early morning trading hours on Thursday.

The share is down a day after Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the central government had approved seven multi-tracking projects for Indian Railways with an outlay of Rs 32,500 crore.

Early this month, the company got a Rs 78 crore order from a railway organisation.

The share has jumped 21.52 per cent in the last month, but in the last five trading days, the share has gone down 1.78 per cent.

The S&P BSE Telecommunications Index was trading higher by 0.15 per cent, or 2.81 points, at 1,833.55, on Thursday morning with many telecom shares such as MTNL, HFCL, Industower, ITI, Onmobile Optiemus, Route, SL Tech, Tata Communications, Tejasnet, TTML and Vindyatel trading in different trajectories.