MTNL posts net profit of Rs 174.58 crore for January-March

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) posted a net profit of Rs 174.58 crore for the January-March quarter on account of refunds for surrendering Code division multiple access (CDMA) spectrum on Monday.

The company had a loss of Rs 595.11 crore in the same period a year ago.

"...On surrender of CDMA spectrum, the compensation of Rs 458.04 crore has been received from government which is included in other income and current quarter," MTNL said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

The public sector telecom firm closed its CDMA unit on 1 March, 2015 and "profit of Rs 315.99 crore is included in the profit/ (Loss) for the current financial year."

For the year ended 31 March, 2016, MTNL's standalone net loss narrowed to Rs 2,005.74 crore, from Rs 2,893.39 crore a year ago.

The consolidated net loss of MTNL too narrowed to Rs 2012.24 crore for year ended 31 March, 2016 from Rs 2901.16 crore at the end of March 2015.

Shares of MTNL closed at Rs 20.05 a unit, up by 11.7% compared to previous close, at Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday.