Bharti Airtel shares drop to 2-year low on downgrades

[prasad]

Bharti Airtel shares dropped to a two-year low, extending a rout after banks including Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered downgraded their ratings for India's top telecoms carrier following its poor earnings results this week.

Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy" with a revised target price of Rs 270, saying it expected "weak" operational momentum in India and Africa, and adding Bharti could maintain or regain market share at the expense of profitability.

Standard Chartered cut Bharti to "in-line" from "outperform" and cut its target price to Rs 300 from Rs 380, saying the recent delay in the 2G spectrum auction will pressure profitability, among other risk factors.



Bharti Airtel shares were last down 4.25 per cent, after earlier hitting a session low of Rs 261.40 rupees, its lowest since July 1, 2010. Shares of the carrier had already fallen 6.6 per cent on Wednesday after its poor April-June results.



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