Shares of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd rose sharply on Monday to scale their one-year high levels. The stock surged 13.37 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 52.48. It eventually settled 5.83 per cent higher at Rs 48.99.
Today's uptick in the share price came after it was reported that "the government is considering the option of handing over operations of MTNL to BSNL." Bourses BSE and NSE have sought clarification from the state-owned telecom operator over the said report.
"The exchange has sought clarification from MTNL on July 15, 2024, with reference to news appeared in https://economictimes.indiatimes.com dated July 15, 2024 quoting 'New Delhi: The government is considering the option of handing over operations of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) to BSNL through an agreement', instead of pursuing a merger route, a source privy to the development said. A final call on this is likely to be taken in a month's time," a BSE statement read.
The scrip saw heavy trading volume on BSE today as around 80.73 lakh shares changed hands. The figure was way more than the two-week average volume of 8.17 lakh shares. Turnover on the counter came at Rs 40.10 crore, commanding a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 3,086.37 crore.
On technical setup, 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 73.75. 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 1.23 against a price-to-book (P/B) value of (-)0.13. 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 had 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 March 2023 quarter.
As per MTNL's website, The authorized capital of the telco caeme at Rs 800 crore. "The paid up share capital is Rs 630 crore divided into 63 crore share of Rs 10 each. At present, 56.25 per cent equity shares are held by the government and remaining 43.75 per cent shares are held by FIIs, Financial Institutions, Banks, Mutual Funds and others including individual investors. MTNL has been given Navratna status in 1997 and was listed in New York Stock Exchange in 2001," it stated.