BHARTIARTL

Bharti Airtel surpassed HDFC Bank on May 18 to become India’s second most valuable company by market capitalisation. Shares of Bharti Airtel gained as much as 2 per cent during the session to trade at Rs 1,953.8 apiece, pushing the telecom major’s market capitalisation close to Rs 12 lakh crore. In comparison, HDFC Bank had a market value of around Rs 11.8 lakh crore. The development comes shortly after Airtel reported its March quarter earnings. The company posted a 33.5 per cent year-on-year decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 7,325 crore for Q4 FY26, compared with Rs 11,021.8 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Despite the drop in profit, revenue from operations for India’s second-largest telecom operator rose 15.6 per cent to Rs 55,383.2 crore from Rs 47,876.2 crore a year earlier. On a sequential basis, both profit and revenue increased 10.4 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively. Airtel’s India revenue grew 7.7 per cent year-on-year to Rs 39,566 crore, while mobile revenue rose 8.3 per cent, supported by improved realisations and a growing subscriber base. The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU) climbed to Rs 257 during the quarter from Rs 245 a year ago. Airtel also plans to strengthen its digital infrastructure business by setting up 56 edge data centres over the next 18–24 months, according to a senior company official.