MTNL SHARES UP 120% IN A MONTH; BSE, NSE SEEK CLARIFICATION ON '$5.1 BILLION BOND BILL' REPORT
Shares of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) extended their strong upmove for the 11th consecutive session in Friday's trade. The stock surged 5 per cent to hit its upper circuit level (also a fresh one-year) of Rs 97.08. At this price, it has given multibagger returns in the past one month by rallying 119.74 per cent.
Stock exchanges BSE and NSE today sought clarification from the state-run telecom firm over a news report titled, "Govt to pay cash-starved telco MTNL's $5.1 billion bond bill." The reply from MTNL is awaited.
Prior to this, the Delhi-based telco has clarified over a separate news report which claimed "the government is considering the option of handing over operations of MTNL to BSNL."
"MTNL has not disseminated any such information as published in newspaper nor in a position to confirm or deny as no such concrete information/decision is there with MTNL. As such no comment on material impact of this article can be given," it stated.
"There is no such circulated information for the general consumption/information of MTNL except that deliberations through Committee of Secretaries meetings are being held at highest level of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and other Govt. Ministries for various options on way forward in case of MTNL and for further action for formal approvals of Government thereto. Therefore, no such specific decision or information is available at this point of time," the telecom PSU also said.
The scrip saw heavy trading volume on BSE today as around 1.02 crore shares changed hands. The figure was way more than the two-week average volume of 16.03 lakh shares. Turnover on the counter came at Rs 54.35 crore, commanding a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 3,361.05 crore.
The counter traded higher than the 5-day, 10-, 20-, 30-, 50-, 100-, 150-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs). The counter's 14-day relative strength index (RSI) came at 94.86. A level below 30 is defined as oversold while a value above 70 is considered overbought.
The company's stock has a negative price-to-equity (P/E) ratio of 2.43 against a price-to-book (P/B) value of (-)0.26. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at (-)39.96 with a return on equity of (RoE) 10.64.
The telecom PSU's losses widened to Rs 817.58 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2024 (Q4 FY24), mainly on account of high finance costs. The company recorded a loss of Rs 745.78 crore in the same period a year ago (Q4 FY23).
The finance cost of the loss-making telecom PSU increased to Rs 688.93 crore from Rs 640.91 crore a year ago. The revenue from operations of MTNL fell by about 5 per cent to Rs 192.66 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 202.35 in the March 2023 quarter.
The state-owned firm is scheduled to release its June 2024 (Q1 FY25) results on August 13.
As per MTNL's website, the authorised capital of the telco stood at Rs 800 crore. "The paid-up share capital is Rs 630 crore divided into 63 crore shares of Rs 10 each. At present, 56.25 per cent of equity shares are held by the government and the remaining 43.75 per cent of shares are held by FIIs, Financial Institutions, Banks, Mutual Funds and others including individual investors. MTNL was given Navratna status in 1997 and was listed in New York Stock Exchange in 2001," it mentioned.
2024-07-26T09:03:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd