NMS: Bharti Airtel share price up 3%; rallies 12% in October.

With expectations of a tariff hike soon after Jio's IPO, Motilal Oswal Financial Services expects strong earnings delivery, which could also lead to potential multiple re-rating for Bharti and JPL.

Bharti Airtel share price movement

 

Bharti Airtel’s share price rallied 3 per cent to ₹1,974 on the BSE in Tuesday’s intraday deals in an otherwise subdued market on expectations of strong earnings growth. 

 

Thus far in October, the stock of the telecom service provider outperformed the market by surging 12 per cent, against a 1.5 per cent rise in the BSE Sensex. It hit a 52-week high of ₹2,174.70 on November 21, 2025.

 

At 12:09 PM, Bharti Airtel quoted 2.4 per cent higher at ₹1,962.40, compared to a 0.09 per cent decline in the benchmark index.

 

Bharti Airtel, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is an integrated telecom services provider with operations in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and 15 countries in Africa. Bharti Airtel has a 29 per cent subscriber share in India and a 32 per cent revenue market share. Bharti Airtel has a strong execution track record and a quality management team.

 

 

Why has Bharti Airtel stock outperformed?

 

Jio Platforms Limited (JPL), the parent company of Reliance Jio Infocomm, is scheduled to list on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, October 28, 2026.

 

According to analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL), the key debate going into the JPL IPO is its potential impact on Bharti, as there could be a shift in telecom sector allocations with another large listed investible option. 

 

However, the brokerage firm believes concerns around a partial shift in the telecom allocation weight from Bharti to JPL are overblown, given JPL’s limited initial free float (vs. Bharti’s foreign institutional investor (FII)/domestic institutional investor (DII) ownership). Further, with expectations of a tariff hike soon after JPL’s IPO, MOFSL expects strong earnings delivery, which could also lead to potential multiple re-rating for both Bharti and JPL.

 

The delay in implementing a tariff hike (versus initial expectations of December 2025) has been a key reason for the muted stock performance of Bharti (down 7 per cent year-to-date (YTD)) and Reliance Industries (down 24 per cent) versus the Sensex (down 13.6 per cent).

 

Given the delays in tariff hikes, Bharti recently discontinued its entry-level ₹299 daily unlimited data pack to support organic average revenue per user (ARPU) growth. RJio relaunched its JioPrime membership to boost revenue while signaling that a tariff hike could be imminent. After the JPL IPO and Vi’s impending fundraise, analysts at MOFSL believe the case for a tariff hike is stronger and build in a smartphone tariff hike of 15 per cent in December 2026, which should provide visibility on delivering a 15 per cent earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over FY26-29E.

 

Meanwhile, Bharti's management reiterated that the Indian mobile tariff structure needs to change, as the unlimited 5G data at ₹349 plan effectively caps the monetisation of data subscribers. That said, management remains confident of seeing 4-5 per cent annual ARPU growth without tariff hikes driven by 4G and postpaid upgrades, international roaming and data plan upsell, analysts at Jefferies said in the August 2026 report.

 

The brokerage firm said Bharti highlighted that investments in the core business will be the primary use of cash. While mobile capex is unwinding, Bharti is focusing on investing in fiber backhaul. 

 

Besides mobile, Bharti plans to invest in growing the homes, enterprise and data center businesses. While Bharti reiterated that it can take up its stake in Indus Towers by 5 per cent, it will reassess its decision on taking up a stake in Bharti Hexacom only after the Government sells its 15 per cent stake in the market. Bharti has increased dividends over the past two years and aims to progressively raise dividends further. Jefferies has a ‘Buy’ rating on stock with a target price of ₹2,400 per share.

 

Disclaimer: Views and outlook in this report belong to the brokerages and analysts cited. They do not reflect the views of Business Standard. Readers are advised to exercise discretion.    

 

(This is a breaking news story. More details are awaited)