Idea Cellular shares tank over 5% post Q4 earnings

Shares of Idea Cellular plunged over 5 per cent in an overall weak stock market today even as the company reported nearly 60 per cent increase in net profit on for the March quarter.
Traders said profit-booking wiped out the initial gains which the stock had made at the opening of the trade.
After falling 6.29 per cent to Rs 179.50 in intra-day trade on the BSE, shares of Idea finally ended 5.12 per cent lower at Rs 181.75.
On the NSE, the scrip settled with a loss of 5.36 per cent at Rs 181.55.
Following the dip in the stock, the company's market value fell by Rs 3,525.18 crore to Rs 65,390.82 crore.

In terms of volume, 13.57 lakh shares of the company changed hands at the BSE and over one crore shares were traded at the NSE during the day.

The Aditya Birla Group's telecom firm Idea Cellular yesterday reported a robust 59.68 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 941.77 crore on a consolidated basis for the March quarter, driven by rise in revenue through volume growth on both voice and data fronts.
Total revenues moved up to Rs 8,422.51 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31 from Rs 7,043.82 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 8,017.47 crore in the preceding quarter.

The private telecom operator's pre-tax profit margin improved by 3.2 percentage points to 31 per cent, which was attributed to the increased scale of operations.
Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex slipped 170.45 points to settle at 27,225.93.