Shares of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea on Thursday jumped up to 6 per cent after Reliance Jio announced that it will charge customers 6 paise per minute for voice calls made to other networks.
The run-up in their share prices came on expectations that these operators may also raise tariffs in response.
While the Vodafone Idea scrip settled with gains of 5.82 per cent at Rs 6.18, the Bharti Airtel share rose 5.05 per cent, or by Rs 18.15, to Rs 377.40.
Shares of Reliance Industries settled 2.76 per cent higher at Rs 1,362.40 on a day the benchmark index slumped over 297 points.
Reliance Jio had, in a surprise announcement on Wednesday, said it will be charging its subscribers 6 paise per minute because of ‘regulatory uncertainty’ over the review of a sunset clause for call termination charges.
“Reliance Jio will recover the IUC for off-net calls from its subscribers at 6 paise per minute via a separate recharge voucher. It would compensate for the hike by offering an equivalent value of data, signaling no effective change in tariffs for subscribers,” analysts at Edelweiss Securities said.
“We view it as a circuitous price hike that may not go down well with subscribers and may prompt a behavioral change among Jio subscribers, discouraging them from making off-net calls… We believe Jio’s tariff hike is prima facie positive for the industry as it enables other operators to raise tariffs too,’’ they added.
According to a note from UBS, Jio’s decision is positive for the sector, despite lingering uncertainties on how the telecom regulator and the company’s rivals will respond.