Airline stocks give thumps up to FM

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech on Thursday announced that 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads will be connected under regional air connectivity scheme (UDAN) of the government.

Presenting the Budget, the Finance Minister also said that the government has proposed expansion of airport capacity by more than five times to handle 1 billion trips a year under a new initiative by the government.

Following the announcement, aviation majors Jet Airways, InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet closed in green. Jet Airways gained 2.32 per cent on BSE whereas the shares of InterGlobe Aviation, which operates IndiGo Airlines improved marginally by 0.44 per cent on Thursday.

The shares of SpiceJet surged 15 per cent to Rs. 142 on BSE in intra-day trade before ultimately closing 6.84 per cent up on BSE.