Aviation stocks up 7% even as DGCA report shows slow passenger growth in February

New Delhi: Aviation stocks on Friday rallied up to 7 percent on the BSE even as DGCA's data showed a slowdown in air passenger traffic in February. The stock of SpiceJet zoomed 7.04 percent to Rs 98.10. Intra-day, it rose 14.23 percent to touch a high of Rs 104.70. [caption id="attachment_4875831" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational image. Reuters[/caption]InterGlobe Aviation closed the counter with 0.28 percent gains at Rs 1,426.85. During the day, it was trading at Rs 1,459.30, up 2.56 percent. Similarly, cash-strapped airline Jet Airways advanced 3.60 percent to settle at Rs 225.85. It had touched an intra-day high of Rs 230. As per a DGCA report released on Wednesday, the number of passengers flying domestic airlines dropped to 11.3 million in February compared to 12.5 million in January. According to Gagan Dixit, VP of Institutional Equity Research, Elara Capital, this upsurge in aviation stocks is on account of Jet Airways' financial condition as Spicejet and Indigo would benefit the most by capturing Jet's domestic market share. Aircraft lessors of Jet Airways would find it easy to locally transfer the aircraft to SpiceJet from Jet Airways, he added. Further, Indigo will benefit from the availability of pilots. It had been facing a shortage of pilots in the past few months, he added.