Mobile telephony leads the show in afternoon, market firm

Mumbai, Feb 5 (UNI) The rally initiated by finance sector on the bourses, extended further by mobile service providers at the BSE and NSE in the afternoon trade.

The 30-stocks Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex was up by 69.77 points at 14473.54 and the Nifty index at the National Stock Exchange was hovering at 4203.45 points, registering a gain of 19.95 points towards the afternoon.

Mobile service majors have been buoyant since Friday after Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) decided to lower port charges, allowing cellular operators to connect to BSNL and MTNL lines by up to 29 percent, a move which is expected to result in tariff cuts, dealers said.

Bharti Airtel rose nearly 3 percent to Rs 793.50. The stock hit a life high of Rs 795.95. Reliance Communications (RCL) was up 2.3 percent to Rs 502. The scrip had cooled from a life high of Rs 503.90.

Reliance Energy rose 1.2 percent to Rs 540.70, amid reports that the company is to bid for the global power assets of British power investment company, Globeleq, by mid-February.

The major gainers were HDFC, SBI, Bajaj auto, hero Honda, ONGC and Reliance. Tech Giant Infosys, PSU leaders such as HPCL, BHEL, Hindalco turned out major losers along with Pharma giant CIPLA, in the afternoon trade.

UNI