OMCs and aviation soar despite bloodbath

Falling oil price and reduction of import duty of ATF helped oil marketing companies (OMC) and airline stocks resist the pressure of sell-off in Thursday's trade. In the international market, Brent crude futures were trading at US$ 81.42 per barrel, down 2.01 per cent for Dec 2018 contracts.

Leading the OMCs was the stock of Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) which was up more than 100 per cent in intraday trade and closed up by a whopping 14.70 per cent. Other state-run OMC inlcuding Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil closed up by 5.11 per cent and 5.39 per cent, respectively on Thursday.

Buoyed by fall in international crude oil prices and a reduction in the excise duty on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) from 14 per cent to 11 per cent, the stocks of airlines operators registered gains on Thursday. Government cut excise duty on Wednesday with immediate effect. The upward trend in the airline operator stock was lead by Interglobe Aviation, followed by SpiceJet and Jet Airways. The stock of InterGlobe Aviation closed at Rs. 770.00 per share, 3.25 per cent and Spicejet closed at Rs. 70.25 per share, up by 3.16 per cent and Jet Airways was at Rs. 191.25, up by 1.11 per cent.

Meanwhile, there was carnage in the board markets with benchmark indices falling 759.74 points or 2.19 per cent and closing at 34,001.15 points.