Airline stocks soar on stake sale rumours

Talks of foreign airlines picking up stake drove two domestic airline stocks to their 52-week high in the markets today but there was no official confirmation of the stake dilution.

Shares of both Jet Airways (India) Ltd and SpiceJet Ltd hit their 52-week high accompanied by a huge volume in the wake of reports that the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways and Malaysia’s low-cost airline Air Asia were in talks with the respective airline companies for possible investment.

Television channels were reporting that Etihad and Jet Airways were in talks for the acquisition of a 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways by the former.

Jet Airways was up by 13.22 per cent or Rs 66.85 to Rs 572.60. The stock hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 598.80 before retreating a bit. The volume of trading was huge at 27.86 lakh shares compared to the two-week average of 10.16 lakh shares.

The share is up nearly four times from its 52-week low of Rs 167 it had touched on December 29, 2011.

SpiceJet was up by Rs 6.05 to Rs 45.35 and the trading volume of 313.63 lakh shares was nearly four-and-half times more than the two-week average of 69.08 lakh shares on the BSE.

The spurt in share prices came in the wake of reports that Malaysia’s Air Asia has shown interest in acquiring stake in the company.