RIL shares surge to seven-and-a-half year high after Jio's new plan

Jio customers were offered free voice calls & unlimited data for a year at a price of Rs 303

Shares of Reliance Industries Ltd rose as much as 10 per cent to a more than seven-and-a-half-year high, as investors welcomed plans by the company's Jio telecom unit to start charging for its services, albeit at discounted rates.

The gains came after Reliance Jio Infocomm owner Mukesh Ambani unveiled on Tuesday a special plan that would provide customers signing up by the end of March with unlimited data and free voice services for a year at a rate of Rs 303 ($4.52) per month.

The offer is priced below its competitors, but the move to paid services is a step to start charging customers after Reliance launched in September with offers for free data, that are scheduled to run until the end of March.

Analysts said the move would help Reliance add more customers and retain a substantial portion of the more than 100 million subscribers it has already added, helping drive up its profit.

"We believe this offer will provide significant value for existing 4G customers," Edelweiss Securities said in a note, adding that it expected Jio's average revenue per user to increase while potentially breaking even on the operating profit front by the year ending in March 2019.

Shares of Reliance Industries were up 7.26 per cent as of 0545 GMT, after rising to their highest since June 15, 2009.

Shares of rival companies also recovered from initial losses on hopes Jio's move to charge customers would help reduce some of the cutthroat competition in the sector.

Bharti Airtel, India's biggest mobile operator, rose 1.9 per cent after falling 3.3 percent on Tuesday.

Smaller rival Idea Cellular rose 0.28 per cent after declining 0.1 per cent in the previous session.