Telecom stocks in demand

Shares of five telecom firms rose by 1.18% to 2.68% at 10:11 IST on BSE as the third round of the telecom spectrum auction continued on a warm note on third day on Wednesday, 5 February 2014.

MTNL (up 2.68%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (TTML) (up 1.64%), Reliance Communications (up 1.48%), Idea Cellular (up 1.42%) and Bharti Airtel (up 1.18%), edged higher.

The S&P BSE Sensex was up 74.75 points, or 0.37%, at 20,335.78.

The auction of spectrum in the 1800 MHz and 900 MHz band began at 9:00 IST on Monday, 3 February 2014.

At the end of the third day of bidding, 21 rounds of bidding have been completed. Bids have been received in all 22 service areas in 1800 megahertz (MHz) band and in all 3 service areas in 900 MHz band. Thus, bidding has taken place in all the service areas in both bands, the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology said in a statement.

Highest demand for 900 MHz was seen from Delhi circle and in 1,800 MHz highest bid was seen in Assam and West Bengal circles.

According to media reports, the eight mobile phone service providers participating in the auction are Reliance Communications, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Telewings, Aircel, Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular.

Telecom companies bid aggressively for the efficient 900-MHz band available in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata circles.

The provisional winning price per block for the 900 MHz band at the end of round 21 on Wednesday, 5 February 2014, for Delhi telecom circle touched Rs 574.08 crore. Mumbai bid price was Rs 563.09 crore and Kolkata wireless business attracted bids worth Rs 192.71 crore in the 900 MHz band.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News