Telecom stocks advance, Bharti leads gainers

Shares of telecom firms surged as much as 4 per cent on Tuesday amid reports that the existing players may not have to pay the auctioned arrived price for their additional spectrum.

The Cabinet is likely to discuss the contentious issue of one-time spectrum charge that the Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed to levy on incumbent operators for the remaining period of their licence on Tuesday.

Bharti Airtel opened on a bullish note and surged 4.09 per cent over its previous closing price. On a similar vein, shares of Idea Cellular jumped 4.56 per cent over its last closing price to Rs 81.25.

Shares of Reliance Communications surged 2.49 per cent over its previous closing price and touched an early high of Rs 65.75.

The telecom department is of the view this will enable a level playing field among all service providers and will "be in the interest of proper conduct of the telecom services".

Meanwhile, the telecom tribunal TDSAT has given a split verdict in 3G intra-circle roaming matter.

Meanwhile, broader market was trading in the positive territory with the 30-share sensitive index trading with gains of 70.73 points at 17,469.71 points.