Telecom stocks in limelight; Bharti Airtel surges 7%

Telecom stocks, led by Bharti Airtel, were in limelight today, surging by up to 7 per cent in an otherwise weak stock market.
Shares of Bharti Airtel jumped 7.09 per cent to settle at Rs 367.90 on the BSE. The stock was the biggest gainer among the 30-Sensex scrips.
Among others, Idea Cellular gained 3.15 per cent and Reliance Communications rose by 2.46 per cent.
Analysts said that telecom stocks gained as bidding intensity in the ongoing spectrum auction has subsided a bit.
The government has garnered Rs 94,000 crore worth of bids from telecom players at the end of five days of spectrum auction yesterday.

Most of the spectrum put up for auction is at present held by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom. Their licences are expiring in 2015-16.
In the broader market the BSE benchmark Sensex ended at 28,709.87, down 134.91 points.