As Jio logs in, other telco scrips crash; Rs 16,997 cr lost in MCap
2 Sep 2016 12:47 AM GMT
Reliance Industries, however, was not lucky enough as during the day, shares fell by 3 per cent to Rs 1,026.25, knocking Rs 10,295 crore off its m-cap. It ended 2.73 per cent lower at Rs 1,029.15.
Investors deserted the counters of telecom operators, with Idea Cellular plunging 11 per cent to Rs 83.20 -- its 52-week low -- during the day on BSE. Later, the stock closed at Rs 83.70, down 10.48 per cent. Shares of Bharti Airtel tanked 8.99 per cent to Rs 302 intra-day and ended the day 6.37 per cent lower at Rs 310.70. Reliance Communications too slumped 10.11 per cent to Rs 48.45 during the session and later ended with a loss of 8.81 per cent at Rs 49.15.
Shares of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd dived 2.83 per cent to Rs 6.19. After the intra-day plunge, Bharti Airtel lost Rs 11,932 crore in market valuation while Idea saw an erosion of Rs 3,709 crore and RCom Rs 1,356 crore.
“Whenever any late entrant in any industry adopts penetration pricing to capture the market share, it does destabilise the existing players. The glimpses of the same were visible today in the form of bloodbath in the stock prices of Idea and Bharti Airtel, which were down,” said Jimeet Modi, CEO, Samco Securities.
Following the sharp losses in these stocks, the BSE telecom index too plunged 5.67 per cent to end at 1,156.58. “No doubt, tariff plans for voice and data are going to be a game changer for the telecom industry... Though, top line from telecom business will start trickling in, big concern arises on timelines of achieving operating break-even point in the context of tariff policy deployed,” said Dharmesh Kant, Head Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Securities.
Storming his way into the telecom industry, India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani announced free voice calls and free national roaming along with rock-bottom data prices on his new Reliance Jio network that will debut on September 5.
Devoting two-thirds of his 90-minute speech at Reliance Industries’ shareholder meet to a slew of announcements on Jio, he took competition head-on by announcing free services on Jio for four months beginning September 5. Voice calling will be free on Jio phones for life and post December 31, 10 data plans will be offered starting at Rs 19 a day for occasional users, Rs 149 a month for low data users and Rs 4,999 a month for heavy data users.
Meanwhile, Reliance Jio has set a target to bring onboard 100 million customers in the “shortest possible time” as it rolls out its 4G network across the country, RIL chief Mukesh Ambani said.
“I have always set impossible goals for the Jio team and they have always exceeded my expectations. So today I set a target for team Jio to acquire 100 million customers on the Jio network in the shortest possible time and create a new world record,” he said at RIL’s 42th Annual General Meeting.
RJio parks Rs 5K cr fund for startups
Mumbai: Reliance Jio has set up a Rs 5,000 crore venture capital fund to help young entrepreneurs in the country build their business. Speaking at Reliance Industries’ 42nd annual general meeting, chairman Mukesh Ambani said Reliance Jio’s aim is to build a platform for young Indians who want to create “businesses of the future”. “Reliance Jio Digital India Startup Fund sets aside Rs 5,000 crore of venture capital to be invested over the next five years to encourage young entrepreneurs to build their businesses ground up in India,” Ambani said.
Operators do have an obligation to provide interconnectivity: Mukesh
Pointing to 5 crore call failures suffered by RJio customers last week due to interconnectivity issues with existing networks, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday asked incumbent operators to fulfil their “obligation” without delay. “Last week Jio customers suffered 5 crore call failures to other networks due to insufficient interconnect capacity... operators should to fulfill their obligation to provide interconnectivity without delay so that no Jio customer suffers,” Ambani said. He said operators also have an obligation not to limit customers’ right to migrate to Jio using mobile number portability. Reliance Jio has accused incumbent players of not releasing sufficient interconnection ports during its test run of services, while the existing operators (under the aegis of COAI) have dubbed its testing of network as an effort to bypass regulations.
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