Mumbai, Mar 20 (IANS): On the day of major merger announcements in the telecom space, the telecom sector shed marginal gains and traded in the red during the mid-afternoon trade session on Monday.

At 1.00 p.m., the telecom stocks, which opened at 1,268.30 points, traded at 1,254.37 points -- down 10.81 points or 0.85 per cent.

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel was one of the biggest gainers. Its shares were trading up 0.06 per cent at Rs 347 per scrip at the BSE, while Reliance Communications was down by 0.39 per cent at Rs 38.10 per share.

Idea Cellular was the worst loser -- down 7.18 per cent at Rs 100.15 per share.

In one of the biggest mergers in the telecom space, Vodafone India and Aditya Birla Group-promoted Idea Cellular announced the much-awaited amalgamation, following which Vodafone will own 45.1 per cent of the combined company.

In another announcement, Reliance Communications has received an approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the proposed merger with Aircel.