Bharti Airtel shares trade lower despite firm maintaining lead in subscriber growth in February

The telecom firm added over 48.5 lakh net new customer additions in February, according to Trai data released on Wednesday. The company pipped its rival Reliance Jio in net subscriber addition in the wireline segment as well during the reported month.

The total telecom subscriber base grew by 73.1 lakh in February to an all-time high of 132.13 crore, according to the monthly subscribers’ report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

“The number of total telephone subscribers in India increased from 1314 million at the end of January 2026 to 1321.31 million at the end of February 2026, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.56%,” the Trai monthly subscriber report said.

Airtel's net new subscriber addition stood at 50.88 lakh, comprising 48.5 lakh in the wireless or mobile segment and 2.31 lakh in the wireline segment, in February 2026.

Meanwhile, data collected from the BSE website showed that BoFA (Bank of America) Securities Europe SA sold 540,000 shares of Bharti Airtel at an average trade price of ₹1,782 per share, which was purchased by BNP Paribas Financial Markets during Wednesday’s market session.

Bharti Airtel share price

At 10:08 AM, Bharti Airtel shares were trading at ₹1,758.80 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, falling 1.3%.

Over a month’s time, the stock has slipped 6%, while it has tumbled 7% in the last six months. From the beginning of the year, Bharti Airtel has tanked 17%.

Shares of the firm had hit a 52-week high of ₹2,174.50 on November 21, 2025, and a 52-week low of ₹1,669.40 on April 7, 2025.

The bank has a total market capitalisation of ₹10.71 lakh crore, according to data on the NSE.

Bharti Airtel Q3 earnings

The country's second-largest telco company had reported a net profit of ₹6,630 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year, marking a decline of 55% from ₹14,781 crore in the same period last year. On a sequential basis, Bharti Airtel's profit declined 2.4% from ₹6,792 crore in the previous quarter.

The Delhi-based company's revenue from operations advanced 20% in the October-December period to ₹53,982 crore from ₹45,129 crore in the year-ago period.

Bharti Airtel's operating profit, also known as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), came in at ₹31,144 crore, and EBITDA margin stood at 57.7%.

Its average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric of profitability of a telecom company, improved to ₹259 per user per month from ₹245 in the year-ago period.