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Informist, Thursday, Apr. 17, 2025

MUMBAI – While the direction of most stocks in the telecommunications sector next week will depend on specific news, Bharti Airtel may continue its upward momentum and reach new highs, analysts said. Since telecom service providers are broadly insulated from the impact of tariffs, the main trigger for the sector will now be the March quarter earnings.

Bharti Airtel looks bullish on the technical charts and may rise to INR 2,000 in the near term, Jatin Gedia, technical research analyst at Mirae Asset Sharekhan, said. The stock hit a lifetime high of INR 1,897.70 in Thursday's session, and has gained over 10% in the past four sessions. The company is also fundamentally strong and has the highest average revenue per user of INR 245.00, way ahead of Reliance Jio's INR 203.30, an analyst tracking the sector at a domestic brokerage, said.

Ajit Mishra, senior vice-president of technical research at Religare Broking, echoed Gedia's sentiment and said the stock might reach INR 2,000.00-INR 2,050.00 in the near term. Thursday, the stock closed 3.7% higher at INR 1,889.10 on the National Stock Exchange.

While things are murkier for Vodafone Idea as it is struggling with debt, the stock might reach INR 11.00-INR 11.50 in the next couple of months, Gedia of Sharekhan said. The stock ended Thursday's session 0.6% higher at INR 7.31 on the NSE, which implies a further upside of 50-60% to reach Gedia's target price.

However, analysts maintain that tariff hikes and resultant growth in the average revenue per user of companies will be an important factor for these stocks. India's top telecom operators may further raise tariffs by the end of the year as part of "industry-wide rate repair efforts", ET Telecom reported global brokerage Bernstein as saying in a note. "We expect the tariff hike to continue over the medium term to reach INR 300 by FY27," the report said. 

The brokerage expects revenue growth in the mid-to-high teens from Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio between 2025 and 2027, which will be driven by strong growth in average revenue per user and subscriber additions. Bernstein expects the domestic telecom industry to undergo consolidation till FY27, with the market share dominated by Reliance Jio at 48% and Bharti Airtel at 38%.  

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Following are the resistance and support levels for telecom stocks for next week as per calculations based on their prices on the National Stock Exchange:

End

Reported by Akash Mandal

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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