New Delhi, May 24: MTN, it seems, has the habit of dumping it suitors.

The South African telecom giant has courted many in the past few years, promised to exchange marriage vows, only to ditch them for some reason or other, said analysts.

And each time MTN said it was in talks for a deal, the price of its stock soared.

In October last year, China’s largest cellular operator, state-owned China Mobile, was learnt to be “close to striking a deal” with MTN. Nothing materialised.

In November 2006, China Telecom was reported to be in talks to buy MTN. “We wish to deny the news report of China Telecom buying MTN,” the Chinese company said then. But MTN shares rose 6 per cent.

However, this time around the MTN scrip may not be all that lucky. Probably sensing that Bharti is pulling out of deal talks, shares of the South African company moved downward yesterday on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

On the other hand, shares of Bharti rose 2.35 per cent yesterday to close at Rs 836.8 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, after mostly falling amid talks with MTN.

The Bharti scrip had fallen almost 12 per cent from more than Rs 900 per share late last month — before reports started surfacing about MTN talks — to Rs 817.60 on Thursday.

Analysts had said the stock was reeling under selling pressure on concerns about any potential financial burden because of a possible takeover of MTN.

According to analysts, the Bharti scrip may gain further and that of MTN may go down again when the markets reopen on Monday.

MTN shares dropped 0.5 per cent on Friday to 156.2 South African rands, pulling the company’s market capitalisation to nearly $37.9 billion. The share price had risen to 160 rands amid talks with Bharti, giving it a market capitalisation of close to $40 billion.