As Chairman Mukesh Ambani offered freebies at the Reliance Industries’ annual general meeting, shares of the rival telecom companies went on a free-fall mode.
And shares of Idea and Airtel almost crashed as Ambani promised free voice calling within India forever on Reliance Jio. Along with that, Jio offers data at Rs 50 per GB (base rate) against Rs 250 per GB charged on average by other operators. Even roaming is absolutely free.
According to BloombergQuint’s report at noon, the S&P BSE Telecom Index was down 2.2 percent – making it the worst performing sectoral gauge on the exchange. Shares of Bharti Artel and Idea Cellular were down by more than 8%.
- Bharti Airtel (-5.2% to Rs 315)
- Idea Cellular (-6% to Rs 88)
- Reliance Communications (-1.4% to Rs 52)
During Ambani’s 45-minute speech, Bharti Airtel lost approximately Rs 9,800 crore and Idea lost roughly Rs 2,450 crore of market cap.
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