Telecom stocks trade mixed ahead of AGR hearing; Tata Comm up 5%, Airtel and Vodafone Idea in the red

Telecom shares were trading mixed on August 14 ahead of the Supreme Court hearing in the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case.

The S&P BSE Telecom was down over a percent, with Bharti Airtel trading 1.5 percent lower. Vodafone Idea shed a percent.

Shares of Tata Communications, however, jumped 5 percent followed by Optiemus Infracom, Reliance Communications and GTL Infra. which gained over 4 percent each.

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The court on August 10 adjourned the hearing on telecom companies under insolvency to August 14, while observing that the government must come prepared with a plan for recovery of dues from the telcos under insolvency, CNBC-TV18 reported.

A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah will hear the case. There is still no clarity on the time period to be given to the telcos for paying AGR dues.

While Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have sought 15 years time for repayment, the government has suggested a time-frame of 20 years.

Vodafone Idea has to pay a balance of Rs 50,399 crore, while Bharti Airtel's outstanding amount is Rs 25,976 crore, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said during a hearing on July 20.

Both the telecom majors, which owe the highest amounts, had reduced from 20 years to 15 years the time for staggering payments following Supreme Court's stringent stance.

Reliance Communications, Videocon and Aircel were asked to submit all records and details of insolvency within seven days, as court wondered if IBC was being misused by the companies.