Manoj Kohli, chief executive and joint managing director of Bharti Airtel, sold 1,23,000 shares in the company through two open market transactions on March 6 and 9, for what he said, ''for personal reasons.'' Kohli said he still held 1,80,000 options and continues as the CEO and joint MD of the company.

''I have sold my current holding in Bharti Airtel Ltd for personal reasons. I continue to hold 1,80,000 options in the company, some of which have already vested and the balance will vest from time to time as per the vesting schedule'' Kohli said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

''I am happy to confirm that I continue as CEO and joint managing director pf the company,'' he added.

Kohli's holding represented only 0.006 per cent of Bharti's equity and he is not a founding member of the company.

The sale is estimated to have fetched Kohli around Rs7.5 crore (about $1.5 million). But the sale helped bring down Bharti Airtel stock, which has a 6 per cent weight in the main BSE index, by 6.4 per cent to around Rs550.30 at the close of trading today.

The fall in shares has also been attributed to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reducing call termination charges by a third - to 20 paise a minute from 30 paise earlier - from 1 April.

Termination charges are paid by the firm from which a call originates to the network where the calls end up.

Bharti, which had 91.11 million mobile users at end-February, is a net recipient of interconnect revenues and lower termination charges would hit its gross revenue for the year ending March 2010 by 4 per cent.

If Bharti cuts outgoing call rates, retains half the benefit of the lower termination charge and passes on the remaining to the consumer, the negative impact on gross revenue would be about 8 per cent and EPS would be hit by 11 per cent, according to Macquarie analysts.

Shares in Bharti Airtel fell as much as 6 per cent on the Mumbai market.