Bharti Airtel extends gain, surges 6% in two-days

Bharti Airtel is trading higher by over 2% at Rs 327, extending its previous day’s around 4% rally ahead of Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) meeting on tomorrow to decide on which prices to charge for 2G radio airwaves at an upcoming auction.

Meanwhile, analyst at ICICI Securities rated the stock as “Strong Buy” with a target price of Rs 420 per share in next twelve months, on expectation of the company’s earnings per share (EPS) will be double over the next two years.

“Falling capex intensity, repayment of debt and reduced interest expense thereon, margin expansion in the African business and high quality subscribers (first takers of 3G) led uptake in 3G services would drive EPS to almost double by FY14,” ICICI Securities said in a report.

“The company is past its peak capex cycle and on a consolidated level would be generating free cash flow in excess of Rs 10,000 crore each year, which would be used to repay the debt,” added report.

The counter have seen huge activities with a combined 1.26 million shares changed hands so far, against an average 3.5 million shares that were trade daily in past two weeks.