Telecom stocks under pressure; Stock prices slip over 1% intraday on BSE Sensex

Shares of listed telecom companies on the BSE Sensex traded in red as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget FY19.

Intraday, the stock price of the telcos’ slipped below 1% on the BSE Sensex.

At 1202, India’s telecom major, Airtel was trading 4.55 points lower or 1.03% at Rs 435.10 per share on the BSE Sensex.

While Idea Cellular was trading 0.70 points down or 0.75% at Rs 92.45 apiece.

Reliance Communications was down 0.50 points or 1.69% at Rs 29 per share.

When Jaitley began his budget speech at 11, RCom shares were down 0.85%; Airtel and Idea Cellular were down 0.49% and 0.38% respectively.

The telecom regulatory body, TRAI, had moved to cut mobile number portability charges to just Rs 4 on Wednesday. This charge was earlier listed at Rs 19 per transaction.

In his budget speech, FM Jaitley announced Rs 10,000 crore for 5,00,000 WiFi rural hotspots.

Further details on the telecom sector are awaited from the budget.

Telecom sector is looking forward to tax cuts in the forthcoming financial year. The sector is currently under a debt burden that is estimated to reach Rs 4.8 lakh crore by the end of FY18.

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