Idea Cellular surges as Jan-March profit beats f'cast

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares in Idea Cellular Ltd are up 7.5 percent after Jan-March earnings beat estimates on Thursday, riding on strong customer additions and a court decision that removed some smaller competitors from the market.

Idea, part of the Aditya Birla conglomerate, said consolidated net profit rose to 3.1 billion rupeesin its fourth quarter through March from 2.4 billion a year ago.

Analysts had on average expected a net profit of 2.8 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi; Editing by Bijoy Koyitty)