shares were under pressure Thursday morning, trading 1.27 per cent lower at ₹1,759.30 on the . Kotak Institutional Equities issued a fresh upgrade to Buy with a target price of ₹2,250.
By 11.25 AM, the stock had touched a high of ₹1,777 and a low of ₹1,750, with traded volume already at 26.78 lakh shares worth ₹470.75 crore. Buy orders accounted for 55.68 per cent of total quantity traded.
Kotak cited resilient wireless performance, near-term ARPU hike potential, and significantly lower capex intensity — projected at 21-22 per cent of revenue over FY2026-28 versus a historical 30 per cent — as drivers of deleveraging and higher shareholder returns. The brokerage also said concerns around capital allocation in Airtel’s business were overdone, with the stock now trading at an attractive 8x EV/EBITDA on FY2028 estimates.
The backdrop to this is Monday’s announcement of a $1 billion fundraise in Nxtra Data, Airtel’s data centre subsidiary, led by Alpha Wave Global and Carlyle — which markets had already begun reacting to in the prior session. CLSA had flagged the deal Wednesday, nudging its target to ₹2,320 and noting Nxtra’s ambition to scale from 300 MW to 1 GW capacity targeting 25 per cent market share.
The stock is down over 16 per cent year-to-date but has returned 134 per cent over three years. Its 52-week high stands at ₹2,174.50.