The mobile telecommunications sector was making decent gains on Wednesday as bid rumours surrounding heavyweight phone network firm Vodafone sparked a sharp rise in the share price.

Speculation that a deal with American part-owner Verizon (VZ) is near at hand escalated yesterday after Bloomberg reported that the two parties had held talks as recently as December and had discussed a possible merger.

A buy-out or a partial sale of Vodafone's 45% stake in the Verizon Wireless (VZW) joint venture is also thought to be an option.

As analysts at Bernstein Research explained, Vodafone's share price - up 6.77% at 180.02p in afternoon trade - is now pricing in a higher probability of a VZW deal than ever before.

Richard Curr, the Head of Dealing at Prime Markets, labelled a potential sale of its share in VZW as a "win-win investment opportunity".

Curr said: "The mobile phone giant has frustrated investors, as the stock has remained in a range between 155-180p for the past six months.

"All that looks to be changing however: if the Verizon stake, (Vodafone's main asset and Achilles heel) is sold off, it will provide the group with the firepower for further acquisitions and potential growth in emerging markets."

Elsewhere in the sector, AIM-listed mobile content group Mobile Streams was also a high riser, up nearly 10%.

The stock has surged around 70% in the past month, though the company said last week that it "knows of no reason for the movement".

Avanti Communciations and Monitise were also higher today.


Top performing sectors so far today
Mobile Telecommunications 4,199.61 +6.40%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 24,570.61 +1.73%
Industrial Engineering 9,662.55 +1.71%
Food & Drug Retailers 4,556.21 +1.46%
Financial Services 6,634.09 +1.18%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Construction & Materials 3,992.95 -3.00%
Industrial Metals & Mining 2,593.32 -2.30%
Tobacco 39,025.05 -1.29%
Mining 19,275.23 -1.20%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 3,135.42 -0.59%

BC

Related share prices
Vodafone Group (VOD) share price
Mobile Streams (MOS) share price
Avanti Communications Group (AVN) share price
Monitise (MONI) share price