Bharti Airtel surges after MTN-deal call off, but pares gains at close

The stock touched a low of Rs 434 and finally settled at Rs 435, up 4% from the previous close. The counter clocked heavy volumes of 6.8 million shares as compared to the two-week daily average traded volumes of 1 million shares.
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(Updated at 1312hrs)

Bharti Airtel has pared gains and is now up 5% at Rs 440.
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(Updated at 1025 hrs)

Bharti Airtel today surged 11.5% on the bourses, a day after the proposed $23 billion deal for the merger of Bharti Airtel and South African giant MTN, fell through.

Shares of Bharti Airtel climbed 11.5% to a high of Rs 467 on the Bombay Stock Exchange while on the National Stock Exchange the scrip jumped to Rs 459, up 9.6% in the early morning trade.

Yesterday, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti called off discussions with MTN citing South African government's rejection of the proposed merger structure in its present form. If the deal had gone through, it would have created the world's third largest telecom company with combined revenues of over $20 billion annually and a subscriber base of over 200 million. The issue of dual listing of MTN to maintain its identity in the merged company appeared to have been the deal-breaker during the tough negotiations lasting well over four months.