Continuing the bullish trend, the markets have opened the week in the green. In tandem with the market optimism, the telecommunication sector has seen a lot of action. The race for Hutch is on, and it's just getting hotter.

Reliance Communications, along with Malaysian telecom major Maxis, has confirmed its interest in picking up a stake in Hutchison Essar.

While company officials of Hutch and Essar have denied moves to dilute equity in the joint venture, sources suggest that Essar is also locking up funds if there is an opportunity to buy Hutchison's stake in the joint venture.

This deal could have several implications for many of the players in the telecom space, making it extremely interesting right now.

News flows related to the telecom sector are certainly driving the stocks up. Is it time to get bullish on the telecom sector now? Experts believe so.

Technical Analyst, Deepak Mohoni likes VSNL and Reliance Communications, a safe stock, according to him. "Reliance Communications is very safe sort of stock; it does not fall very much. It does fairly well on all the rallies, may not be spectacular but steady and dependable, one might say."

Ambareesh Baliga of Karvy Stock Broking is also positive about the telecom sector.  He says, "From a momentum angle, I would possibly buy a stock like Reliance Communication or Bharti. But from a longer term investment point of view, as a dark horse, I would go with MTNL which is still quoting at good levels."

Technical analyst, Rahul Mohindar, is of the view that Bharti Airtel looks positive in long term and any dip is an investing opportunity in the stock.

As on December 18, 2006, Reliance Communications closed the day with a market cap of Rs 95,524.65, while Bharti was at Rs 116,303.65 and MTNL at Rs 8,322.30. And it's not just the giants in the sector causing all the action, IPOs of Spice Telecommunications and Idea Cellular, in the pipeline, are eagerly awaited.

The telecom sector is now witnessing renewed interest. In the current market scenario, the views of the street are definitely bullish on the telecom sector, and many seem to be betting big on it.

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