PT Telkom's 1996 profit jumped 66 per cent as total lines in service rose and costs fell.
Telkom, Indonesia's domestic phone monopoly, said profit rose to 1.50 trillion rupiah (about HK$4.88 billion) from 906.9 billion in 1995. Earnings per share rose to 161.07 rupiah from 106.4 rupiah in 1995.
The higher-than-expected profit may help allay investor fears that Indonesia's closed telecommunications market will soon be opened to competition.
'Telkom is protected as the incumbent domestic phone monopoly,' said David O'Neil, a telecommunications analyst at BZW Securities in Singapore.
'If they deregulated the market tomorrow, it would take four to five years before a competitor could really build up a network and become a major threat.' 'A good, meaty result like this should give the stock a couple of hundred rupiah bounce,' Mr O'Neil said.
Telkom's shares rose 100 rupiah yesterday to 3,850 rupiah.
The government has said it will preserve Telkom's monopoly until the end of 2005. Telkom's shares fell 6.4 per cent earlier in the week on speculation competition could be introduced sooner.