Barclays downgrades Reliance Comm to 'underweight'

Reuters Market Eye - Barclays downgrades Reliance Communications to "underweight" from "neutral", citing expensive valuations after recent outperformance.

Reliance Communications remains highly leveraged and has limited ability to increase capex, which would keep its mobile business "significantly weaker than peers", Barclays adds.

Reliance Comm shares had risen 116.5 percent in the last one year as of Monday's close, compared with the Nifty's 9 percent gain in the same period.

Barclays reiterates Bharti Airtel as its top pick in the telecom sector with an "overweight" rating and a price target of 393 rupees.

Reliance Comm shares were up 1.1 percent and Bharti was down 0.7 percent at 12:07 pm.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi)