BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Citigroup has maintained its 'buy' rating and 115 hkd price target on China Mobile following the company's strong second quarter results.
'China Mobile will continue to be the strongest telecom operator in China for the next few years, in our view,' said the brokerage in a research note.
China Mobile recorded a net profit in the first half of 37.9 bln yuan, ahead of Citigroup's and the Street's expectations as robust traffic growth drove higher-than-expected revenues.
Revenue reached 166.6 bln yuan, up 21.6 pct from a year earlier.
Revenues from value-added services grew 35 pct from the previous year to account for 25.2 pct of total revenues, compared to 22.6 pct of the total in 2006.
The company said it sees its rural push as sustaining subscriber, traffic and value-added service growth in the second half. China Mobile had an 18 pct penetration into rural areas compared to 38 pct nationwide by the end of the first half.
At 2:31 pm, Hong Kong-listed China Mobile Ltd was down 2.90 hkd, or 3.587 pct, at 77.95 hkd.
(1 usd = 7.58 yuan; 7.8 hkd)
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