Airline shares tumble up to 14 pc; IndiGo hits 52-week low

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Airline stocks plunged into deep red on Friday due to the ongoing travel restrictions in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

Shares of IndiGo and SpiceJet were trading with heavy losses. InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of the country's largest airline IndiGo, saw its shares slump 14.08 per cent to hit 52-week low of Rs 875.

SpiceJet dropped nearly 10 per cent to Rs 44.70.

Hundreds of cancelled flights, decline in daily ticket bookings, fall in footfalls at airport shops and spike in expenses continue to rattle the country's aviation space as airlines, with weakened financials, and airport operators grapple with coronavirus headwinds.

More than 490 flights operated by foreign carriers to and from India have been cancelled for varying periods of time while the count of weekly flights cancelled by domestic airlines is more than 90, as per official data.

In the broader market, the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty staged an unprecedented recovery after witnessing their worst-ever intraday crash in early sessions.

In the afternoon session, the Sensex was trading higher by 937 points or 2.86 per cent at 33,715.14, while the NSE Nifty was up 306.20 points or 3.19 per cent at 9,896.35.

The Sensex plummeted over 3,200 points and the broader Nifty sank by nearly 1,900 points, hitting their lower circuit limits, in the opening session on Friday as coronavirus pandemic-led recession fears fuelled worldwide panic.

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