Telecoms smile as stocks rise

MUMBAI, INDIA: Telecom scrips were on the rise Tuesday, a day after the draft national telecom policy proposed new norms which, among others, will allow companies to share and trade spectrum.

At the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Bharti Airtel was up 3.83 per cent in afternoon trade and was ruling at Rs 377.15. It had moved up to an intra-day high of Rs 380.20 in early trade Tuesday.

Reliance Communications too was ruling 1.82 per cent higher at Rs 75.40. It had climbed 3.71 per cent in the morning.

The draft of the new telecom policy was unveiled by Communications Minister Kapil Sibal and the final version is expected to come in by December.

"The proposals to provide more spectrum, allow sharing of spectrum and allocation of spectrum through transparent market-based processes are progressive policy decisions, which will provide much needed capacity augmentation to this vital sector," said Bharti Airtel in a statement.

The telecom giant also said that the proposal to give infrastructure status to the telecom sector and rationalisation of taxes and levies will provide much needed relief to the sector.

Financial advisory firm Deloitte Haskins & Sells said the government's statement that the revenue generation will play a secondary role is likely to rationalise various regulatory matters and clear direct-indirect tax and other litigations.

Idea Cellular too was trading higher at the BSE, up 3.63 per cent at Rs 95.75, slipping marginally from its morning high of Rs 96.40.