Telecom stocks zoom on Credit Suisse rating, Bharti surges 10%

Telecom stocks rallied on the bourses today, with market leader Bharti Airtel surging over 10 per cent after global financial services firm Credit Suisse upgraded the company's rating to outperform from neutral.

Shares of Bharti Airtel jumped 10.36 per cent to touch a month-high of Rs 309.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex.

The Credit Suisse report suggests that post-consolidation of its Africa business, Bharti may achieve an earning per share (EPS) of Rs 20 for the third quarter of the 2011 fiscal, with 27 per cent earnings growth for the following two years.

Idea Cellular, too, zoomed 14.66 per cent to Rs 67.65 as Credit Suisse upgraded the company's rating from underperform to outperform.

ADAG firm Reliance Communications' rating was improved to neutral from underperform, following which the stock gained 3.88 per cent to Rs 195.25.

The global financial services firm also estimated that the EPS for RCOM and Idea will improve by 7 per cent and 100 per cent, respectively.

All the other telecom sector players also participated in the rally, with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd gaining 7.3 per cent, Tata Communications 5.84 per cent and MTNL 4.72 per cent.