Idea Cellular hits five-year high on robust Q4 earnings - NDTV

New Delhi: Shares in Idea Cellular hit a five-year high today on better-than-expected earnings for the January-March quarter. The telecom major announced a 30  per cent rise in quarterly profit after market hours on Thursday, riding on strong customer additions. After hitting a high of Rs 128.5 today --  a level last seen in February 2008 -- the stock pared gains. At 1.12 pm, it traded at Rs 123.45, up 6.19 per cent. The Aditya Birla group company said consolidated net profit rose to Rs. 310 crore for its fiscal fourth quarter ended March from Rs. 240 crore in the year-ago period. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of earnings growth for the country's No.3 mobile carrier by revenue. "Idea Q4 results were ahead of expectation," Karan Mittal, telecom analyst at ICICI Direct, told NDTV. "Volume growth has been good for Idea...  expected a contraction in the average revenue per minutes (ARPMs) which didn't happen." The brokerage may upgrade the stock post its management concall. ICICI Direct currently recommends a target price of Rs 120. However, Mr Mittal warned that the strong growth may not continue in the coming quarters as regulatory overhang continues for telecom players. Shares of Bharti Airtel, which is slated to report its Q4 results on May 2, gained nearly 5 per cent on hopes of better-than-expected earnings for January-March after Idea's Q4 results. Idea is much smaller than Bharti in revenue terms, but both mobile carriers operate on GSM technology and have similar subscribers. Also, the mainstay for both companies is second-generation (2G) voice services although there has been a greater push in the recent months to increase revenue from mobile data. "Idea's numbers are positive ... for Bharti Airtel. They imply that the subscriber growth would normalise," said an analyst tracking the sector. Mr Mittal said Bharti is expected to report strong results. With inputs from Reuters via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHtOECu8BIUZdsYnFOMZZgzHPAvSw&url=http://profit.ndtv.com/news/market/article-idea-cellular-hits-five-year-high-on-robust-q4-earnings-321454

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