In some much-needed relief for investors, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) opened strongly today and is comfortably in the green at the time of writing. The ASX 200 is currently sitting at 7,333 points, up a healthy 0.84% for the day so far.
But one ASX 200 share not joining in the action is Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS).
Telstra shares are presently trading at $3.83. That's 0.52% down on yesterday's close. This means Telstra is now down 3.28% over the past month. It's also down by roughly 5.5% from the new 52-week high it reached back in August at $4.05.
This lukewarm performance comes despite a run of recent good news for Telstra shares.
Just yesterday, we covered how broker Morgan Stanley has recently rated Telstra shares a buy with a 12-month share price target of $4.50. This implies a potential future upside of more than 17% over the next year.
Morgans is bullish on Telstra following the company's release of its 'T25' cost-cutting plan and its growing 5G network.
Could the Telstra share price be rising on Digicel news?
Another piece of news is out regarding Telstra today. According to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), Telstra's potential acquisition of the Pacific Islands-based Digicel Pacific is "weeks away from being sealed".
Telstra initially flagged the potential acquisition back in June. Due to some geopolitical considerations, the federal government is keen to partner with Telstra to allow it to acquire Digicel.
Digicel owns a vast network of 3G and 4G mobile networks across the South Pacific.
According to the SMH report, the government is set to provide "more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer money" to help Telstra buy Digicel. An announcement is expected "as early as November".
This will see Telstra put up $200-300 million of its own cash, together with the government's $1.5 billion, for Digicel Pacific's assets.
It's not entirely clear whether this news is directly affecting the Telstra share price today. But even so, it seems acquiring Digicel is certainly on the cards for Telstra now.
At the current Telstra share price of $3.83, the ASX 200 telco has a market capitalisation of $45.79 billion.
Telstra shares also have a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.59 and a dividend yield of 2.6%.
