Bharti Airtel hits record high, stock rallies 3%; market cap tops ₹ 11 trn

Bharti Airtel is now ranked 4th on the Indian stock exchanges in terms of market-cap; the stock has rallied nearly 15% in the last one month.

Bharti Airtel’s (Airtel) market capitalisation (market-cap) crossed ₹11 trillion for the first-ever time, after the stock price of telecom services provider hit a new high of ₹1,879.95, gaining 3 per cent on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade. 

 

In the past six trading days, the stock price of Airtel has surged 11 per cent on expectations of healthy earnings for the March 2025 quarter (Q3FY25). In the past one year, it zoomed 55 per cent, as compared to 7 per cent rise in the BSE Sensex.

 

At 12:16 PM; the combined market-cap of Bharti Airtel (₹10.69 trillion) and Bharti Airtel’s partly-paid shares (₹55,899 crore) stood at ₹11.25 trillion, the BSE data shows. This makes Airtel the fourth Indian company to reach a market-cap of ₹11 trillion.   Airtel now at No. 4 in market cap ranking

 

 

Airtel’s market cap is 5 per cent away from the information technology (IT) giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has market-cap of ₹11.79 trillion, data shows.  Reliance Industries is at top of the list with market-cap of ₹17.04 trillion and HDFC Bank at second position with market-cap of ₹14.57 trillion.

 

In the past one month, the stock price of Airtel has appreciated by 15 per cent after the company and its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom had prepaid additional ₹5,985 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) on March 26, 2025, thereby fully prepaying the high-cost interest liabilities of 8.65 per cent pertaining to the 2024 auctions. Airtel's subsidiary Network i2i Ltd. has also voluntarily called and redeemed $1 billion in Perpetual Notes.

 

The prepayments have resulted in Airtel clearing ₹1.16 trillion of scheduled installments that would have otherwise been payable on their respective dates over the original tenure of the liabilities. Underscoring its commitment to financial prudence, operational efficiency, and its strong capital position, Airtel continues to prepay its high-cost spectrum liabilities, lowering its debt and cost of debt, the company said.  Earnigns expectations 

Analysts at BNP Paribas India believe the Indian telecom industry should continue to see strong year-on-year (YoY) revenue growth, aided by tariff hikes. However, the brokerage firm expects quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) revenue growth to be muted due to the fewer days in the quarter and the limited incremental benefit of the June 2024 tariff hike.

 

“In Q4FY25, we expect Airtel to report 1 per cent QoQ revenue growth in its India Mobile business, supported by subscriber additions and offset by likely flattish average revenue per user (ARPU). We expect Airtel’s India revenue (ex-passive infrastructure) to grow by 1.5 per cent Q-o-Q and consolidated revenue by 2 per cent,”BNP Paribas India said in Q4FY25 preview.

 

Airtel is expected to report strong mobile broadband (MBB) subs addition, at 6mn in Q4FY25 (vs. 6.5mn in Q3FY25); overall subs addition is also expected to be healthy at 3mn subs. However, its ARPU is expected to be flat QoQ at ₹ 245, as the benefit of upgrades and improved subs mix is likely to be offset by 2 lesser days QoQ in Q4FY25 (while Jul'24 tariff hike has completely passed through its APRU by end 3QFY25), said analysts at JM Financial Institutional Securities.  About Bharti Airtel 

Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 550 million customers in 15 countries across India and Africa. The company also has its presence in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through its associate entities. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over 2 billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa.