Bharti Airtel claims the No. 2 spot: How it beat HDFC Bank to become India’s second most valuable company

Bharti Airtel has officially overtaken HDFC Bank to claim the rank of India’s second most valuable listed company, illustrating how stock market investors treat telecom companies and banks. Shares of Airtel rose over 2% on the BSE to Rs. 1,943, with a market capitalization of approximately Rs. 11.8 lakh crore had been reached. HDFC Bank, in contrast, fell over 2% during the same session, taking its market cap to around Rs. 11.7 lakh crore remained.

Only Reliance Industries (RIL), Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-retail conglomerate, has about Rs. Leading with a market cap of 18 lakh crores.

A milestone is not a story of a day. Over the past five years, Airtel shares have jumped 270%, while HDFC Bank has returned a comparatively modest 49%, capturing the Indian telecom’s structural re-rating against the banking giant that has struggled to regain its pre-pandemic valuation dominance. Resignation of its chairman.

The rest of the top 10 by market capitalization include ICICI Bank, SBI, TCS, Bajaj Finance, L&T, HUL and LIC.

Why Dalal Street is Bullish on Airtel

BofA Securities, Rs. With a target price of 2,320, the argument is that the risk-reward is firmly in Airtel’s favor. “We see good market share gains for Bharti, healthy momentum in the non-cellular business segment and upside potential from the data center business,” the bank said. “We expect Bharti’s FCF to continue to grow going forward as competition is steady-to-decreasing and we do not foresee any material capex increases going forward.”

Also read | Sunil Bharti Mittal to hand over Airtel to his children in 10 years, Bharti wants to get back 51% stake in telecom company

JP Morgan, March 2027 Rs. With a price target of 2,250, 5G points to three specific catalysts beyond premiumization: “Growth in pursuit, deleveraging and dividend increases should be key catalysts for the stock.” Bank India values ​​wireless at 12x EV/EBITDA, home broadband at 12.5x and assigns a lower multiple of 10x to the digital TV business.

Goldman Sachs also maintained buy, citing weakness in the towers and DTH segments, though it raised its 12-month DCF-based target to Rs. 2,250 to a nominal Rs. 2,210 has been done. Goldman raised its FY27-FY30 revenue estimates by 1-2% following Q4 results, but trimmed EBITDA estimates to 2%.

This milestone comes on the back of mixed but broadly credible Q4FY26 results. Consolidated revenue and EBITDA came in 1–3% ahead of UBS estimates and consensus, but composition was uneven. Africa outperformed — up 41% in revenue year-on-year, or 17% in constant currency — while India Home Broadband posted a robust 9.5% quarter-on-quarter growth. India’s mobile revenue, however, grew just 8% year-on-year and 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, slightly below UBS’s estimates.

The company for FY26 is Rs. 24 announced a dividend, which in FY25 was Rs. 16 and up from Rs. 20 was ahead of consensus expectations, indicating growing confidence in free cash flow generation.

Airtel also announced a share swap agreement under which it would acquire ICIL’s 16.31% stake in Airtel Africa in exchange for issuing 146.7 million new shares to ICIL, representing approximately 2.4% dilution.