Airtel pares early losses; gains 4.5%

New Delhi: Shares of Bharti Airtel on Wednesday pared early losses and rose by 4.5 percent even as the company reported its lowest quarterly profit in four years for the January-March period.

The stock opened the day on a weak note and fell by over 2 percent but later zoomed 4.39 percent to Rs 360.70 on BSE.

At NSE, shares of the company jumped 4.53 percent to Rs 360.90 despite opening on a weak note.

Country's largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel yesterday reported its lowest quarterly profit in four years as net earnings fell 72 percent in January-March, hit by "sustained predatory pricing" by rival Reliance Jio.

The net profit in the quarter ended March 2017 stood at Rs 373.4 crore (or Rs 0.93 a share), nearly a fourth of the Rs 1,319.2 crore (or Rs 3.30 a share) notched in the year-ago period.

The company announced the results after market hours.

Bharti Airtel -- which has 372.4 million customers in 17 countries -- saw its total revenue decline by 12 percent during the fourth quarter to Rs 21,934.6 crore from Rs 24,959.6 crore in the same period last fiscal.