Vodafone Idea shares slip below face value to hit fresh low of Rs 9.80

Shares of Vodafone Idea slipped below its face value of Rs 10 at Rs 9.80, down as much as 1.7 percent on the exchanges on Thursday.

The fall comes after a government panel on Wednesday approved a combined penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for not providing points of interconnection to Reliance Industries' telecom unit Jio.

At 10.30 AM, the stock was unchanged at Rs 9.97 per share, while the Sensex was up 100 points, or 0.27 percent, at 37,950. Around 37 lakh equity shares changed hands on the BSE.

So far this year, the shares of Vodafone Idea have declined over 55 percent.

India's telecom regulator, Department of Telecom (DoT) in 2016 had recommended the penalty against Bharti, and what were then Vodafone Group Plc's India unit and Idea Cellular, saying the three denied points of interconnection to Jio, a move it termed as anti-consumer and aimed at stifling competition.