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Bharti Airtel Q2 Numbers, Global Stock Market Drivers, and Top Stocks in Action Today
Mon, 18 Nov Pre-Open

On Friday, Indian share markets traded on a positive note throughout the day and ended marginally higher.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 70 points to end the day at 40,357. Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India were among the top gainers.

While the broader NSE Nifty closed higher by 23 points to end at 11,895.

On the sectoral front, telecom stocks gained the most, followed by banking stocks and finance stocks.

Top Stocks in Focus Today

From the pharma sector, Aurobindo Pharma share price will be in focus today as the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has inspected company's Unit IV, a general injectable formulation manufacturing facility situated at Pashamylaram, Hyderabad, from November 4 to 13, 2019.

At the end of the inspection, the company have been issued a 'Form 483' with 14 observations.

To know more, you can read Aurobindo Pharma's latest result analysis on our website.

Cipla share price will also be in focus today as the USFDA has also conducted a routine cGMP inspection for both formulations and APIs at Cipla's manufacturing facility in Patalganga, from November 4 to 13.

The inspection ended with 4 observations, none of which were repeat or related to data integrity.

Market participants will also be tracking Natco Pharma share price as the company commenced commercial operations by its Finished Dosage Formulations (FDF) facility in Visakhapatnam, which is a key part of its capacity expansion plans.

The facility was a part of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and intended to cater primarily to the US and other international markets.

Coffee Day Enterprises share price will be in focus today as the company has signed non-disclosure agreements with private equity firms KKR, TPG Capital and Bain Capital for initiating discussions on a significant stake buy in the group's coffee business. The PE firms are expected to begin due diligence shortly.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Post Staggering Loss in Q2FY20

Bharti Airtel on Thursday posted its second quarterly loss in 14 years after the company provided for outstanding payments to the central government on account of the Supreme Court judgment on adjusted gross revenues (AGR).

The company reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 313.3 billion for the September quarter (Q2FY20). The pre-tax loss in the year-ago quarter stood at Rs 20 billion.

Net loss came in at Rs 230.5 billion in Q2, as against a profit of Rs 1.2 billion in the September quarter last year. Before provisioning for the exceptional item, the company's net loss stood at Rs 11.2 billion for Q2FY20.

Airtel said its net loss was on account of exceptional charge pertaining to the provisioning of Rs 284.5 billion towards the AGR dues, which included principal of Rs 61.6 billion, interest of Rs 122.2 billion, penalty of Rs 37.6 billion, and interest on penalty of Rs 63.1 billion.

Note that, last month, the Supreme Court delivered a judgment in relation to a long-outstanding industry-wide case, upholding the view considered by the Department of Telecom (DoT) in respect of the definition of AGR. The SC allowed three months to the affected parties to pay amounts due to the DoT.

Prior to exceptional item of AGR and taxes, the loss came in at Rs 6.2 billion in the July-September quarter, as against the year ago loss of Rs 18.5 billion.

The company's India revenues increased by 3% on year-on-year basis to Rs 153.6 billion. Average revenue per user (ARPU) jumped 28% at Rs 128 for the September quarter, driven mainly by the increased data customer base. On a sequential basis, the ARPU remained flat as against Rs 129 in June quarter.

Airtel's data customer base grew 27.2% to 124.24 million as against 9.77 million in the year-ago period.

In other news, Telecom major Vodafone Idea reported a massive pre-tax loss of Rs 369.6 billion for the July-September quarter, against a loss of Rs 49.7 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Shares of the company plunged 11.5% to hit an all-time low of Rs 2.61 apiece in early trade on Friday, after the company reported a net loss of Rs 509.2 billion for the September quarter.

Note that this is the biggest ever loss in corporate India's history. The company reported losses due to outstanding payment related to adjusted gross revenues.

However, shares of the company bounced back over 25% on reports that the government was mulling sops to revive the telecom sector.

It provisioned for Rs 276.1 billion on account of licence fees and Rs 165.4 billion, including interest and penalties on interest, related to spectrum usage charges (SUC).

Reports state that the company could be pushed towards bankruptcy in the absence of any relief measure from the government.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space.

Global Stock Market Drivers

On Friday, hopes of a trade deal between Washington and Beijing turned global stock markets and other risk assets higher, though an escalating wave of global protests from Hong Kong to Chile left some deep scars.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Thursday that the US and China were getting close to an agreement and were talking every day.

A Reuters poll of more than 100 economists showed that while concerns have eased over a US recession, few see an economic rebound, and most believe a trade truce is unlikely in the coming year.

On the commodities front, crude prices rebounded after sliding Thursday on rising US crude inventories. US West Texas Intermediate crude was 0.5% higher at US$ 57.02 a barrel.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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