NEW DELHI: Shares of
Vodafone Idea
extend losses on Monday and fell as much as 29.2 per cent (intraday) to a record low of Rs 6.55. Equity indices also closed on a cautious note amid sustained foreign fund outflow.
The
Vodafone Idea stock
plunged 27.03 per cent to close at Rs 6.75 on the 30-share BSE index. Sensex dived 196 points or 0.52 per cent to finish at 37,686; while the broader NSE Nifty moved 95 points or 0.84 per cent lower to settle at 11,189.
The telecom company posted a net loss of Rs 4,874 crore in Q1 against a loss of Rs 4,882 crore in the March quarter (FY19 Q4). The June quarter revenue slipped over 4 per cent from the previous quarter to Rs 11,270 crore.
The merger of the India unit of Vodafone Group and Idea Cellular was completed on August 31, 2018, and the numbers of June quarter are not comparable with those in the year-ago period.
Established operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea are in the midst of a bruising tariff war following the entry of Reliance Jio, backed by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani.
Jio's free voice and dirt-cheap data offering have dented the financial metrics of older operators, deepening the impact of regulatory decisions like cut in termination charges, even though the voice and data usage have been growing at a scorching pace.
Within three years of starting its commercial operations, Jio has become the country's largest telecom operator with a subscriber base of 331.3 million, surpassing Vodafone Idea which on Friday reported a decline in its user base to 320 million by June 2019.
According to the financial results reported by Reliance Industries last week, its subsidiary Reliance Jio had a user base of 331.3 million by June 2019.
Mukesh Ambani-led firm Jio had pipped Bharti Airtel in May to become the second largest mobile operator with 322.9 million users and 27.80 per cent market, according to Trai data. Airtel had 320.38 users or 27.6 per cent market share.
Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 1,503.26 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors purchased shares to the tune of Rs 1,917.52 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.
(With agency inputs)
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