Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi), two listed private telecom operators in India have performed well on stock exchanges on Friday close. Both the telcos’ stocks were trading fairly lower compared to where they were a few months back. Bharti Airtel’s stock closed at Rs 671.20 which is 1.67% up from the previous close of Rs 660.20. Airtel’s stock had touched a daily high of Rs 675.70. An uptick of Rs 10 in a single day is something Airtel would gladly take. Vodafone Idea’s stock closed at Rs 8.75 which is 2.34% up from its previous close of Rs 8.55. Before closing at Rs 8.75 on Friday, the stock touched a daily high of Rs 8.80.
Vodafone Idea’s Stock Benefited from Capital Raise Approval and AGR Deferment
Vodafone Idea’s board announced that it would be raising Rs 436 crore from its current largest promoter – Vodafone Group UK. In addition to this, the telco’s board said that it will be opting for the deferment of AGR (adjusted gross revenue) related dues worth Rs 8,837 crore. The telco will be paying the said amount in six instalments after March 31, 2026. Further, the equity conversion process for the government in the telco should be done soon which would help Vi in getting rid of interest dues amounting to Rs 16,000 crore. Bharti Airtel’s business performance has been impressive for the last two years. The telco has been continuously adding new active mobile subscribers and its average revenue per user (ARPU) is the highest in the industry. Airtel is expected to benefit from the future tariff hikes and the telco has seen growth in subsidiaries including broadband, online banking (Airtel Payments Bank), Nxtra (data center business) and more. Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) would both want to keep the momentum going and bring users an uptick in the stock price. However, Monday’s pretty far away and no one knows for sure how the stocks of the telcos will perform in the new week.
