Karvy Stock Broking Limited has maintained ‘Buy’ rating on Bharti Airtel stock with an intraday target of Rs 825.

According to Karvy, day traders can purchase the stock above Rs 800 with a strict stop loss of Rs 780. The stock pricing becomes more attractive, and reach above Rs 828, if the stock market remains positive.

Shares of the company, on Monday (July 28), closed at Rs 794.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of shares traded at the BSE was 348793. Current EPS and PE Ratio stood at 32.90 and 24.16 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 1149 and a low of Rs 688 on BSE.

The outlook for the stock is really very strong, and it will really outperform the stock market. The stock will achieve the target price as the company has aggressive growth plans and strong operating capabilities.

Bharti Airtel posted a substantial increase in standalone net profit for the three month period ended June 30, 2008. The company’s profit surged 44.86% to Rs 20,467.90 million.

The company’s net sales for the same period climbed 40.65% to Rs 78,930.10 million, while total income for the quarter rose 39.72% to Rs 79,523.20 million. It posted EPS (earning per share) Rs 10.78 a share during the quarter.

Interest cost decreased 77.49% to Rs 584.70 million, while depreciation cost fell 3.44% to Rs 7,251.00 million over previous year period.

On July 18, Bharti Airtel announced its strategic tie-up with SKS Microfinance to make mobile telephony available and affordable for rural custmers.

Airtel`s plan, ‘Grameena Mobile Kranthi’, is aimed at enabling each and every person in rustic India to have tele-connectivity via mobile phone.

Airtel and Tata Indicom have slashed their pre-paid tariff rates from July 5 and rolled out new plans. The move is to retain their existing customers and woo new clients. All the pre-paid customers of Bharti Airtel in Delhi and NCR area would be capable of making local calls to any mobile or landline at 50 paisa per minute by recharging with Rs 49.

On June 21, Bharti Airtel has formed a strategic alliance with the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative (IFFCO) and formed a new joint venture company called IFFCO Kisan Sanchar (IKSL).

On Jun 18, the company entered into a network-to-network interface (NNI) contract with Pacnet to interconnect the networks of both the companies for expanding connections in and beyond India.

In addition, Airtel and Pacnet will also introduce a `Gateway to India` offering for high capacity International Private Line circuits between the United States and India that would leverage the strengths of each company`s subsea assets to provide a fast, resilient end-to-end connection for enterprise customers.

Moreover, Bharti Airtel will be launching the newly-unveiled iPhone 3G in India later this year.

Other stocks from the same sector that looks good for short-term as well as long-term trading includes MTNL, Idea Cellular, Tata Comm and Reliance Comm.