D-Street Buzz: BSE Telecom index falls 3%; Bharti Airtel, Infratel among top drags

Telecom stocks Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratel, Sterlite Technologies, ITI and OnMobile Global traded in the red, keeping their sectoral index under pressure.

The BSE Telecom index fell nearly 3 percent in intraday trade and traded as the top loser among the sectoral indices on BSE.

Around 12:05 hours, the telecom pack was 2.54 percent down at 1,180.61 points, with Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratech, Sterlite Technologies, ITI, Reliance Communications and HFCL as top drags on the index.

Most telecom majors fell after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for not taking coercive action against the telecom companies regarding adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payment.

The Supreme Court is to hear on the telecom operators' plea on their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) outstandings this week.

The plea was filed by Consumer Rights Foundation which said the DoT’s order amounts to contempt of court.

In light of the Modified Application moved before the Apex Court by the telecom operators, DoT decided to hold out on any further action until the hearing for the application has taken place sometime during the coming week.

The Supreme Court, on October 24, had ordered telecom companies to pay a hefty sum of Rs 1.47 trillion by dismissing their plea challenging the definition and applicability of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and ordered the payment to be made within 90 days of the order.