NEW DELHI: Decent gains in Sterlite Technologies (up 5.43 per cent), Bharti Airtel (up 4.02 per cent), Bharti Infratel (up 2.95 per cent), Vindhya Telelinks (up 2.26 per cent) and Idea Cellular (up 2.19 per cent) lifted BSE Telecom index up by 3 per cent in Wednesday's trade.

Shares of Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel got traction on reports that the US buyout fund KKR, comprising Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and GIC Singapore was in discussions to acquire Indus Towers, the world's largest wireless infrastructure company, and telecom tower company Bharti Infratel for $11 billion. The move is expected to spur fresh capital inflow for the telecom major.

The S&P BSE Telecom index was trading 2.90 per cent up at 1,393 around 1 pm (IST). Benchmark Sensex was 0.35 per cent up at 32,034, while Nifty50 was trading 0.37 per cent up at 10,054 around the same time.

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ITI (up 1.87 per cent), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 1.24 per cent), OnMobile Global (up 0.54 per cent) and GTL (up 0.41 per cent) were other significant gainers in the telecom space.

However, Himachal Futuristic Communications (down 2.72 per cent), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (down 2.39 per cent), Tata Communications (down 1.23 per cent) and GTL Infrastructure (down 1.02 per cent) were some of the telcom stocks that were losing in the trade.

Over 100 stocks, including Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Bharat Financial Inclusion, Bharat Forge, Birla Corporation, Bombay Dyeing, Delta Corp, GAIL (India), JSW Energy, Majesco, Motherson Sumi Systems, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, Petronet LNG, Tata Chemicals, TVS Electronics and TVS Motor Company hit fresh 52-week highs on NSE in Wednesday's trade.

HPCL, Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratel, BPCL, Indian Oil Corp, Bajaj Auto, M&M, Axis Bank, RIL, TCS, HCL Tech, Aurobindo Pharma were among the top gainers in Wednesday's trade.