Bharti Airtel shares were under pressure Thursday morning, trading 1.27 per cent lower at ₹1,759.30 on the NSE. Kotak Institutional Equities issued a fresh upgrade to Buy with a target price of ₹2,250.
By 11.25 AM, the stock had touched a high of ₹1,777 and a low of ₹1,750, with traded volume already at 26.78 lakh shares worth ₹470.75 crore. Buy orders accounted for 55.68 per cent of total quantity traded.
Kotak cited resilient wireless performance, near-term ARPU hike potential, and significantly lower capex intensity — projected at 21-22 per cent of revenue over FY2026-28 versus a historical 30 per cent — as drivers of deleveraging and higher shareholder returns. The brokerage also said concerns around capital allocation in Airtel’s NBFC business were overdone, with the stock now trading at an attractive 8x EV/EBITDA on FY2028 estimates.
The backdrop to this is Monday’s announcement of a $1 billion fundraise in Nxtra Data, Airtel’s data center subsidiary, led by Alpha Wave Global and Carlyle — which markets had already begun reacting to in the prior session. CLSA had flagged the deal Wednesday, nudging its target to ₹2,320 and noting Nxtra’s ambition to scale from 300 MW to 1 GW capacity targeting 25 per cent market share.
The stock is down over 16 per cent year-to-date but has returned 134 per cent over three years. Its 52-week high stands at ₹2,174.50.
Published on April 2, 2026