Shares of Vodafone Idea Ltd on Monday cracked 27 per cent, eroding Rs 7,126 crore from its market valuation, after the company’s first quarter revenue as well as subscriber base declined.

The scrip tumbled 26.81 per cent to close at Rs 6.77 on the BSE. During the day, it tanked 29 per cent to Rs 6.56 -- its 52-week low. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), shares dropped 27 per cent to close at Rs 6.75 apiece.

The massive selling in its share price also wiped out Rs 7,126.14 crore to Rs 19,453.86 crore from its market valuation on the BSE. In terms of traded volume, 484.86 lakh shares were traded on the BSE and over 66 crore shares on the NSE during the day.

Selling was also seen in other group shares, with Grasim Industries Ltd tanking 9.08 per cent, Aditya Birla Capital dropping 4.37 per cent, Aditya Birla Money falling 1.65 per cent, UltraTech Cement 2.94 per cent and Hindalco Industries Ltd 2.52 per cent on the BSE.

Together, the group companies suffered a combined loss of about Rs 17,500 crore in market capitalisation. “Vodafone Idea’s Q1 FY20 revenue fell by 4.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter, belying recent hopes of stability,” according to a report by JM Financial Institutional Securities.

India’s largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Friday narrowed its consolidated loss to Rs 4,873.9 crore for the June 2019 quarter. The company had registered a loss of Rs 4,881.9 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19, Vodafone Idea Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

Also read:Voda-Idea posts ₹4,874-crore loss

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.

The revenue of Vodafone Idea for the June 2019 quarter fell to Rs 11,269.9 crore as against Rs 11,775 crore logged in the January-March 2019 quarter. Vodafone Idea said the first quarter revenue “declined by 4.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter primarily due to churn of customers who recharged with ‘service validity vouchers’ in the fourth quarter as well as ARPU (average revenue per user) downtrading“.

The company’s subscriber base declined to 320 million in the first quarter of this fiscal, from 334.1 million in the fourth quarter of last financial year.

comment COMMENT NOW