Airtel shares fall nearly 2%; mcap declines by Rs 1,918 crore

New Delhi: Shares of Bharti Airtel on Wednesday fell nearly 2 percent after the company reported its lowest profit in four years as demonetisation and intense competition with Reliance Jio hit revenues.

The stock ended the day at Rs 311.55, down 1.52 percent on BSE. Intra-day, it declined by 3.87 percent to Rs 304.10.

On NSE, shares of the company went down by 1.62 percent to close at Rs 311.35.

The company's market valuation dropped by Rs 1,918 crore to Rs 1,24,539 crore.

In terms of volume, 4.69 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over one crore shares changed hands on NSE during the day.

Consolidated net profit in October-December period fell 54 percent to Rs 503.7 crore as against Rs 1,108.1 crore in the same period a year ago, the company said in a statement yesterday.

"The quarter has seen turbulence due to the continued predatory pricing by a new operator," said Gopal Vittal, the CEO of Bharti Airtel.

"This has led to an unprecedented year-on-year revenue decline for the industry, pressure on margins and a serious impact on the financial health of the sector," he added.

Bharti Airtel's revenue fell 3 percent to Rs 23,363.9 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal. Mobile data revenue slowed to Rs 4,049 crore due to "free voice and data offering by a new operator".