Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 24.80 points, or 0.14% to 17,544.06.
On BSE, 6.04 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 11.26 lakh shares in the past one quarter.
The stock hit a high of Rs 308.65 and a low of Rs 300 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 495 on 19 May 2009 and a 52-week low of Rs 229.50 on 27 November 2009.
The large-cap stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 18 March 2010, gaining 6.72% as compared to the Sensex's 7.30% rise. It had also underperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 5.39% as compared to the Sensex's return of 4.78%.
The company's equity capital is Rs 1898.63 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.
The current price of Rs 307.80 discounts the company's Q3 December 2009 annualized EPS of Rs 24.36, by a PE multiple of 12.64.
According to media reports earlier this week, the country's three largest mobile service operators -- Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar -- have submitted applications for third-generation mobile services in all 22 service areas. Relatively smaller players such as Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Aircel are also expected to bid for licenses in several regions. Today is the last date for applying for 3G mobile spectrum
Under the auction, the government is offering three 3G licenses each in 17 of the 22 telecom service areas in the country, and four slots each in the remaining five regions. But given that there are more than four private-sector operators in most of the regions, competition between those operators is expected to force them to bid strongly.
The 3G services will start from 1 September 2010. The 3G mobile services will allow high-speed content download and broadband services. The government is likely to garner Rs 35000 crore from this auction.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel added 2.9 million mobile users in February 2010 against 2.85 million in January 2010 taking its total mobile user base to 124.60 million.
Bharti Airtel's net profit rose 14.6% to Rs 2312.10 crore on 0.8% fall in sales to Rs 8755.45 crore in Q3 December 2009 over Q3 December 2008.
Bharti Airtel provides mobile telecommunication services in India. It also provides fixed-line, VSAT, Internet and broadband services.