Reliance Communications Shares Advance on Phone Usage

Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM), India’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, gained the most in almost six weeks in Mumbai trading after increasing revenue from voice calls in the world’s second-biggest mobile market.

The shares increased as much as 4.7 percent and were trading 3.1 percent higher at 67.55 rupees as of 10 a.m., poised for its biggest one-day gain since April 17. India’s benchmark Sensitive Index, or Sensex, advanced 0.6 percent.

Reliance reported fourth-quarter profit of 3.32 billion rupees ($60 million) on May 26, beating analysts’ estimates for earnings of 1.69 billion rupees, as customers increased usage of their phones. Subscribers spent 103 billion minutes on Reliance’s network, up 3.1 percent from the previous quarter.

Reliance, the flagship company of billionaire-Chairman Anil Ambani, joined competitors Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) in raising call rates for the first time in more than two years in 2011. Reliance, which spent 85.9 billion rupees buying airwave permits for third-generation services two years ago, is evaluating an initial public offering of its submarine-cable unit to reduce its debt load.

Mumbai-based Reliance had been expected to post profit of 1.69 billion rupees in the three months ended March, according to the median of 22 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kartikay Mehrotra in New Delhi at Kmehrotra2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net