Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was 110.56 points, or 0.69%, to 16174.46.

On BSE, 27.27 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 20.99 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 55 and a low of Rs 51.05 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 91.70 on 11 June 2009 and a 52-week low of Rs 40 on 21 November 2008.

Telecom stocks have been in the doldrums for the past few days on concerns that raging tariff war will further shrink revenues and margins of telecom companies.

The Idea Cellular stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 5 November 2009, falling 24.22% as compared to the Sensex 4.76% fall. It underperformed the market in past one quarter, correcting 31.45% as against 1.01% rise in the Sensex.

India's third largest listed cellular service provider has an equity capital of Rs 3100.09 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 51.35 discounts the company's Q2 September 2009 annualised EPS of Rs 3.52, by a PE multiple of 14.58.

On Thursday, 5 November 2009, some reports suggested that the Department of Telecom is likely to slash the annual licence fee by up to a third for telecom operators with large network presence.

The licence fee cut will benefit the four top operators the most, since their networks cover all census towns and large villages in several states.

Besides slashing the annual licence fee, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is also reportedly seeking an approval from the finance ministry to exempt all licence fee for landline services.

Idea Cellular's net profit soared 81.6% to Rs 273.15 crore on a 20.2% increase in sales to Rs 2760.61 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q2 September 2008.

Idea Cellular had on 16 February 2009 announced that the promoters of the company did not pledge any of the equity shares of the firm.