Airtel pares early losses; gains 4.5 pc

Shares of Bharti Airtel today pared early losses and rose by 4.5 per cent even as the company reported its lowest quarterly profit in four years for the January-March period.
The stock opened the day on a weak note and fell by over 2 per cent but later zoomed 4.39 per cent to Rs 360.70 on BSE.
At NSE, shares of the company jumped 4.53 per cent to Rs 360.90 despite opening on a weak note.
Country's largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel yesterday reported its lowest quarterly profit in four years as net earnings fell 72 per cent in January-March, hit by "sustained predatory pricing" by rival Reliance Jio.

The net profit in the quarter ended March 2017 stood at Rs 373.4 crore (or Rs 0.93 a share), nearly a fourth of the Rs 1,319.2 crore (or Rs 3.30 a share) notched in the year-ago period.
The company announced the results after market hours.
Bharti Airtel -- which has 372.4 million customers in 17 countries -- saw its total revenue decline by 12 per cent during the fourth quarter to Rs 21,934.6 crore from Rs 24,959.6 crore in the same period last fiscal.