Bharti Airtel Gains On Singtel Alliance, BofAML Upgrade

Shares of India's biggest telecommunications company Bharti Airtel jumped as much as 2.97 per cent to hit intraday high of Rs 352.85 after the company joined hands with Singapore Telecommunications to provide high-speed data network coverage across 325 cities in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle-East, Africa, Europe and the US under one network.

Singtel's 200 points of presence (PoPs) in 160 cities around the world and Airtel's over 170-plus PoPs in 165 cities across India, Africa and the Middle-East will be part of the new network.

"This association will strongly enhance our value proposition for enterprise customers by offering them a wider global reach and the largest reach within India under a single platform," a top executive of Bharti Airtel said. 

Bharti Airtel said that the deal will benefit companies in pharmaceutical, IT and IT-enabled services as well as financial segments, which are branching out to international locations rapidly.

Meanwhile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has upgraded Bharti Airtel to 'buy' from 'neutral' for target price of Rs 426 per share, citing attractive valuations. 

Bharti Airtel closed up 2.7 per cent at Rs 351.90.