Bharti Infratel hits 52-week low; stock down over 15% in two sessions

The stock hit 52-week low of Rs 287 on the BSE in intra-day trade, down 19% in past two trading days

Bharti Infratel fell to its 52-week low of Rs 287, down 13% on the BSE in intra-day trade on back of heavy volumes.

The stock of telecom services provider tanked 19% in past two trading sessions from Rs 354 on Friday, after Vodafone on Monday said it is in talks to merge its unlisted Indian subsidiary with Idea Cellular.

Bharti Infratel is the passive infrastructure subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. It holds 42% stake in Indus towers - a joint venture between the top 3 GSM incumbents – Bharti (42%), Vodafone (42%) and Idea (16%).

On a consolidated basis, it has a tower portfolio of 86,000 towers. Bharti Infratel and Indus towers have together account for around 40% of the Indian wireless tower base.

Idea and Vodafone merger would be a clear negative for Bharti Infratel. The merger could risk long term tenancy addition, analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services said in recent note.

At 11:42 am; the stock was down 10% at Rs 295 on the BSE as compared to 0.55% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter jumped more than three-fold with a combined 6.62 million shares changed hands on the BSE and NSE.