The Markets have just opened, and Bharti Airtel shares are among the top gainers. Know why

Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's top mobile services provider, were prominent in the top quartile of gainers on Wednesday after the company reported a sharp surge in quarterly profit on the back of asset sales and higher data usage.

Bharti said its first quarter Net Profit rose 24 percent to 1,554 crore rupees compared with 1,253 crore rupees in the sequential quarter. Total Income during April-June edged up 2.8 percent to 23,671 crore rupees from 23,206 crore rupees in January-March. Bharti reported an exceptional profit of 458 crore rupees in the first quarter from the sale of some of its tower assets in Africa.

Data revenues per user in the first quarter showed a 3 percent uptick to `181/month. Data traffic on mobiles surged 83 percent on year, Bharti said in a statement.

Bharti rose 2.6 percent, or 10.70 rupees, to 423.95 rupees on the National Stock Exchange, where 21.5 lakh shares were traded by 10:10 amcompared with the 5-day average of 31.3 lakh shares.

Bharti's market capitalisation has jumped 13 percent in the past one year to 1.65 lakh crore rupees as investors bought into the stock that best exemplifies India's thirst for talking and using mobile-based data platforms.

Image credit: Indiatimes