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Informist, Friday, May 2, 2025

MUMBAI – With no key triggers for the sector currently, the direction of telecom stocks next week will be determined by stock-specific news, analysts said. Reliance Industries Ltd.'s Reliance Jio Infocomm reported strong earnings for the March quarter and now investors will eye Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s results that are due on May 13.

"Bharti Airtel looks bullish on the charts and may continue to move to higher levels," Jatin Gedia, technical research analyst at Mirae Asset Sharekhan, said. The stock may face resistance near INR 1,950 and may find support around the INR 1,800 levels, Gedia said.

Vipin Kumar, senior derivatives and technical analyst at Globe Capital Market, is also bullish on the stock. "We are bullish on Bharti Airtel and suggest traders to wait for some dip to add around 1,750 levels," he said.

Vodafone Idea Ltd. is likely to be range-bound next week and may move in a wide range of INR 5.50-INR 9.00, he said. Friday, shares of Bharti Airtel ended 0.7% lower at INR 1,851.90 on the National Stock Exchange, and those of Vodafone Idea closed at INR 7.05, down 1%. Kumar of Globe Capital, meanwhile, is cautious on the stock. "Idea, on the other hand, is still weak. We suggest traders to wait for some trigger point before placing any investment or trading bet," Kumar said. 

Bharti Airtel ended 2% higher for the week after falling nearly 4% in the previous week. Vodafone Idea ended a two-week winning run, and ended lower in every session this week. The stock ended nearly 6% lower for the week, and has erased all the gains it had notched up in the past two weeks.

The major event for the sector this week was the quarterly earnings of Reliance Jio. The company's net profit for the quarter rose nearly 3% on year to INR 66.44 billion and revenues rose 2% to INR 300.18 billion. The growth was due to tariff hikes and customer additions. 

"RJio revenue and EBITDA grew ~2% QoQ and were slightly weaker than our estimate due to lower-than-expected ARPU (average revenue per user) and weaker incremental margins," Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in its report. The brokerage cut its estimates for the company's revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation for FY26 by 3% and 5%, respectively, due to a delay in materialisation of benefits of the tariff hike and lower incremental EBITDA margins. The brokerage also expects Reliance Jio to undertake a 15% tariff hike in December. Emkay Global Financial Services expects monetisation of the company's 5G network will help in Reliance Jio's average revenue per user. 

Tejas Networks Ltd. and Indus Towers Ltd. also announced their earnings for the March quarter this week. Indus Tower's top line beat analysts' estimates on the back of a sharp increase in the number of towers and co-locations. 

"We raise our FY26-27E EBITDA by ~3% each, primarily driven by contributions from towers acquired from Bharti (Bharti Airtel)," Motilal Oswal said in a report. Tejas Network reported a consolidated net loss of INR 718 million for the March quarter, compared to a net profit of INR 1.47 billion a year ago.

TOP HEADLINES

* Railtel Corp Jan-Mar net profit rises 46% on year, revenue jumps 57%
* Earnings Review: Indus Towers sees sharp rise in towers, co-locations Jan-Mar
* HC upholds arbitral award asking BSNL to pay Vihaan Networks INR 435.2 mln
* Vodafone Idea launches 5G services in Chandigarh and Patna
* 3M India looks to settle tax disputes, may result in INR 1.19-bln liability
* Railtel bags order of INR 901 mln from Institute of Road Transport, Chennai
* Indus Towers board to meet Wed, mull buyback, bonus issue, dividend
* Tariff hike, customer addition drive Reliance Jio earnings growth in Jan-Mar
* Tejas Networks posts INR 718 million consol loss in Jan-Mar vs PAT yr ago

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

End

Reported by Akash Mandal

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

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