Cabinet approves spectrum auction; here's how telecom stocks reacted

Shares of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea recorded a fall on Friday, while Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries registered gains, showing a mixed trend after the Union Cabinet approved spectrum auction in 8 bands for providing telecom services in the country. The additional spectrum is intended to improve the quality of telecom services and coverage for consumers.

Bharti Airtel stock opened a gap down at ₹1,137 and fell to an intra-day low of ₹1,115.8 on the BSE before settling at ₹1,121.90. At the current share price, the m-cap of Bharti Airtel stands at ₹6.31 lakh crore. The share touched its one-year high of ₹1,200.95 on January 25, 2024, while the one-year low of ₹736.20 on March 2, 2023.

The Bharti Airtel stock has recorded a 2.89% fall in the past week. However, the stock has recorded a 5.28% surge in the past month. On a six-month, year-to-date and one-year basis, the scrip has risen 26.80%, 10.63% and 46.18%, respectively.

Rival Vodafone Idea's share also fell 1% intra-day before settling at ₹14.73 on the BSE. The scrip is trading 20% down from a 52-week high of ₹18.42 on January 1, 2024. Vi's m-cap stands at ₹71,656.70 crore.

The RIL stock, whose subsidiary Jio Infocomm Ltd is India's largest telecom service provider, has seen a 0.90% surge during the intra-day trade today. The share is currently trading 11.3% below the 52-week high of ₹2,110, and its m-cap stands at ₹78,904.43 crore.

The broader benchmark BSE Sensex was up 0.24% or 168.3 points at 71,596, at the time of filing of the report, while Nifty 50 was also up 0.23% or 46.95 points at 21,768.70.

Notably, the Union Cabinet on Friday approved the spectrum auction, under which the auction will be held for spectrum in 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz frequency bands.

With this auction, a total of 10,523 MHz spectrum is being offered with a valuation of ₹96,317.65 crore at the reserve price. The spectrum will be offered for assignment for a validity period of 20 years.

Apart from this, the Union Cabinet also set up a committee of secretaries to consider re-framing of existing spectrum usage to increase the spectrum availability to meet future needs of the telecom services.

The Cabinet has also given its nods to spectrum requirements of rail-based urban or regional transit systems like NCRTC in the 700 MHz band for automatic train protection systems and operations.

The Union cabinet has decided to conduct spectrum auctions every fiscal year to make the process of making spectrum available for telecom services in the country, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said in his Cabinet briefing on Thursday.