Telecom shares rally; Idea, RCom up over 5%, Bharti Airtel hits 8-year high

Shares of telecom services providers rallied with Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications up more than 5% each, and Bharti Airtel at eight-year high on the BSE. MTNL, Tata Communications and Reliance Industries, too, were trading higher in the range of 1% to 3% as compared to 0.2% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex at 11:12 AM.

The S&P BSE Telecom index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 1.6%, hitting record high of 1,624 points in intra-day trade on Monday.

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), a telecom arm of Reliance Industries, has decided to raise effective prices of most 4G tariff plans by 15-20% from October 19.

RJio’s revision of tariffs, which includes a reduction in the validity period, is a positive for the telecom sector and will ease some pressure off the incumbents, the Business Standard report suggests.
According to Financial Express report, the government will soon come out with regulations to allow telecom operators to enter into agreements for sharing of network-related infrastructure or Common Telecom Infrastructure (CTI), a move that will not only bring down operational cost of these companies, but also check the menace of call drops.

Bharti Airtel was up 3% at Rs 490, its highest level since May 2009 on the BSE. In past two weeks, the stock rallied 29% after the company said on October 12 that it will acquire the wireless business of the Tata Group.

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) too locked in upper circuit for the seventh straight trading sessions up 5% at Rs 6.47 on the BSE. The stock zoomed 61% from Rs 4.02 on October 11, as compared to 2% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.