Airline stocks soar

In this otherwise extremely bad market, one sector is looking bright and perky – the aviation. All the three listed airline stocks figure in the top five gainers list on the BSE. Indigo in fact is the top gainer on the BSE currently and it rose over 7% to Rs.799.50. Jet Airways, despite all the bad news surrounding it, the stock price rose over 4.5% to Rs.197.90. Spicejet too is in the green, up over 3.5% at Rs.70.50.

The reason for the cheer? Effective today, the excise duty on aviation turbine fuel has been cut from 14% to 11%. This is the first time since 2014 that excise duty in ATF has been cut; otherwise it has always been north bound, going up from 8% to 14% till yesterday.

This reduction comes as a sweet relief on the back of the recently hiked basic customs duty on ATF from 0 to 5%.