bharti airtel: Market Movers: Bharti Airtel charts its own course; CLSA makes HAL soar

MUMBAI: is charting its own course in the telecom sector despite being the second largest player. Where industry leader Reliance Jio wants to lure customers as much as its seamless network can handle, Bharti Airtel is focused on getting more bang for its buck.

And, investors love it!

Shares of the second-largest telecom operator in the company surged over 4 per cent as it announced new tariff plans for its post-paid customers, which will effectively lead to a 30-40 per cent rise in tariffs.

The hike in the post-paid segment, which contributed upwards of 25 per cent to sales, will help improve the Arpu for Airtel even if it comes at the cost of losing a few customers. Airtel is currently leading Reliance Jio in terms of profitability, and the New Delhi-based company intends to keep things that way.

HAL soars to the sky

Some, not all, brokerages can change the point of view of the market. They are rare, but when they say things the market tends to listen. No surprise then that CLSA Asia-Pacific’s bullish initiation report on

got the Street chirping.
CLSA projected that HAL can grow earnings at 14 per cent annually for the next five years as the government of India raises its expenditure on modernising its defence. “HAL’s integrated design-to-production capabilities, market access, growing after-market, net-cash position and operating leverage provide long-term thrust levers,” the brokerage said.

Shares of HAL rose over 4 per cent in agreement but CLSA believes that the gravy train or gravy flight of HAL is just getting started.

Roller-coaster for HUL

The stock market can be a harsh place, sometimes even harsher than the comment section on Twitter. One moment you are the toast of every investor, the other you are a disappointment. Judgement is instant. No one knows this roller-coaster ride better than India’s largest FMCG company, HUL.

Shares of the company popped over 2 per cent after the company announced a decent set of numbers for the June quarter with volumes bettering most estimates. Yet an hour later, all those gains were wiped out as the stock closed over 2 per cent lower.

The reason for the flip in mood? Well, investors realized that the lower-than-expected operating margins in the June quarter were something they couldn’t ignore after all. Plus, the company’s price hikes in the quarter weren’t sufficiently high enough to protect margins leaving investors worried over the company’s growth.