SINGAPORE--Singtel's fiscal first-quarter net profit dropped, weighed by exceptional gains in the year-earlier period.

The Singapore telecommunications operator on Thursday said net profit for the three months ended June declined 72% from a year earlier to 818 million Singapore dollars, equivalent to US$638.7 million. Last fiscal year, the company's first-quarter results had included exceptional gains of S$2.20 billion from the sale of a partial stake in Airtel, as well as the Intouch-Gulf Energy merger.

Underlying profit for the first quarter rose 21% from a year earlier to S$831 million, boosted by NCS, Optus, Digital InfraCo and regional associates such as Airtel and AIS.

Operating revenue rose 4.9% to S$3.56 billion, partly reflecting the favorable currency effects of a strong Australian dollar that mitigated weakness in Singtel's Singapore operations.

Singtel Group Chief Executive Yuen Kuan Moon said the company has begun to see contributions from its investments in its digital infrastructure unit, with its data-center arm Nxera seeing "good growth" in contracted capacity in the region from strong artificial-intelligence and cloud computing demand.

Investor focus is likely to remain on Singtel's firm underlying profit momentum, said Citi analyst Arthur Pineda in a note after the company's results. "While Singapore had remained challenging owing to intense competition, regional associates, Optus and its growth investments had all delivered year-on-year expansion even against ongoing macro concerns," he said.

Shares of Singtel declined 0.7% to S$4.26 after the results.