Airtel hits record high as strong Q4 points to better days ahead

Kolkata | Mumbai: Bharti AirtelNSE -0.64 %’s stock price hit an all-time high, rising over 12 per cent intraday, a day after the telco’s India mobile business delivered robust growth in the March quarter, underlined by a 14 per cent sequential jump in average revenue per user (ARPU), which chief executive Gopal Vittal expects will grow further in the short term.

Speaking at an earnings call on Tuesday, Vittal indicated Airtel’s strategy for the upcoming 4G spectrum sale, saying the carrier needs to improve its 4G airwave holdings by adding pan-India sub-GHz spectrum. He noted that gaps remained on this score in key challenger markets such as Kerala, Uttar Pradesh-West and Haryana. His comments came even as the telecom department is poised to appoint an auctioneer on May 22 for the next 4G spectrum sale likely around October.