Five telecom stocks rose by 0.97% to 7.70% at 11:25 IST on BSE after Idea Cellular reported strong Q4 March 2013 earnings.
Idea Cellular (up 7.70%), Bharti Airtel (up 4.94%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 3.67%), Reliance Communications (up 1.31%) and MTNL (up 0.97%), edged higher.
The BSE Sensex was down 75.65 points, or 0.39% at 19,331.20.
Idea Cellular's consolidated net profit rose 28.95% to Rs 308.18 crore on 12.88% rise in total income to Rs 6061.38 crore in Q4 March 2013 over Q4 March 2012.
The consolidated net profit rose 34.82% to Rs 308.18 crore on 8.66% rise in total revenue to Rs 6061.38 crore in Q4 March 2013 over Q3 December 2012. The result was announced after market hours on Thursday, 25 April 2013.
Idea said the high revenue growth was led by sharp expansion of voice minutes at 8.5% to 143.4 billion, on sequential quarterly basis, indicating consumer demand for mobile telephony is robust. The visitor location register (VLR) growth is back, with company clocking 8.3 million incremental quarterly growth and delivering over 40% of industry incremental VLR in first 11 months of the year ended March 2013 (as per TRAI February 2013 report). Idea now serves 121.6 million quality customers. VLR is a temporary database of subscribers who have roamed into the particular area, which an operator serves.
The average realised rate per minute (ARPM) was nearly flat at 41.2 paise (p) in Q4 March 2013 against 41.1p in Q3 December 2012. While the challenges on voice ARPM continue, Idea improved non-voice revenue to 15.2% (14.6% in Q3 December 2012) led by data growth.
On a standalone basis, the overall exponential revenue growth has translated into earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of Rs 1503.70 crore, margin improvement by 1.2% to 24.7%, inspite of accounting for one-off regulatory charge of Rs 76 crore reflecting in license and WPC charges. Annual EBITDA has increased to Rs 5371.40 crore at 23.8% in the year ended March 2013 in comparison to Rs 4515.90 crore at 22.9% in the year ended March 2012.
On a standalone basis, Idea generated healthy cash profit of Rs 4696.80 crore in the year ended March 2013, a growth of 30.2% over the year ended March 2012.
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