Telecom shares rally: Bharti Airtel hits 52-week high, Idea surges over 5%

Bharti Airtel surged 11% to its 52-week high of Rs 397 on the BSE in intra-day trade

Shares of telecom service providers have rallied by up to 11% on the BSE in early morning trade.

Bharti Airtel has surged 11% to its 52-week high of Rs 397, after India's largest telecoms network operator, said it would buy Telenor (India) Communications Pvt Ltd, to strengthen the market positions, potential for synergies etc.

Bharti Airtel said it has entered into a definitive agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments Pte Ltd. (“Telenor”) to acquire Telenor (India) Communications Private Limited (“Telenor India”), subject to regulatory approval.

Airtel will buy Telenor's India operations in seven circles - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and Assam, the company said in a statement.

It will also enable Airtel to further bolster its strong spectrum foot-print in these seven circles, with the addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, it added.

At 09:35 am; the stock was up 7% at Rs 385, as compared to 0.30% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter more than doubled with a combined 11.28 million shares have already changed hands in first 25 minutes of trade on the BSE and NSE.

Meanwhile, among other telecom stocks, Idea Cellular was trading 6% higher at Rs 120, after hitting high of Rs 122 in intra-day trade. The stock trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 128, touched on April 28, 2016.

Reliance Communications was up 4% at Rs 37, while Reliance Industries up 1% at Rs 1,221 after the stock rallied 11% on Wednesday. The S&P BSE Telecom index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, up 4.5% at 1,314.