Share prices of aviation companies SpiceJet, Jet Airways and Indigo-owner Interglobe Aviation closed with gains on Wednesday despite the BSE Sensex ending flat. Jet Airways ended 4 percent higher at Rs 478, SpiceJet closed 4.24 percent up at Rs 106 and Interglobe Aviation rose 4.27 percent to end at Rs 1,106 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
SpiceJet will be announcing its Q4 and FY2017 results on June 3.
The BSE Sensex closed 14 points lower at 31,145 ahead of Q4 GDP data due to be released today. Top losers were Infosys, Coal India and Sun Pharma while gainers include Mahindra and Lupin.
An update by ICICI Securities in April projected 60 percent sequential fall in SpiceJet's Q4 net profit to Rs 72 crore while estimating net sales at Rs 1,678 crore, a growth of 13.8 percent, YoY.
For the third quarter ended December 2016, SpiceJet's net profit declined 24 per cent to Rs 181 crore while income rose 12.5 percent to Rs 1,642 crore, YoY.
On Tuesday, full-service carrier Jet Airways reported 95 percent in its Q4 net profit to Rs. 23 crore as against Rs. 426 crore in the corresponding period last year and 3.5 percent rise in income to Rs. 5,728 crore from Rs. 5,533 crore.
Earlier, Interglobe Aviation had also reported weak Q4 numbers. Net profit fell 24.6 percent to Rs 440 crore in comparison to Rs 584 crore in the year-ago period while operating profit margin (EBIDTAR) dropped to 29.9 percent from 37.9 percent for March 2016 quarter.
The fall in net profit was mainly due to 71 percent rise in fuel costs to Rs 1,750 crore for Q4 as against Rs 1,024 crore in the corresponding period last year. Overall costs stood at Rs 4,523 crore, up 30.8 percent from Rs 3,458 crore in the year earlier, according to regulatory filings by Interglobe Aviation on Tuesday after trading hours.
Revenues from operations grew 18.5 percent to Rs 4,848 crore for Q4 from Rs 4,090 crore for the corresponding period last year.
For 2016-17, net profit fell 16.5 percent to Rs 1,659 crore while it was Rs 1,986 crore in the preceding fiscal. Revenues rose 15.1 percent to Rs 18,580 crore. The company declared a dividend of Rs 34 per share for 2016-17.
Interglobe Aviation had said it has signed agreement with French aircraft maker Avions de Transport Regional GIE for the purchase of 50 ATR 72-600 aircraft; 20 of these are expected to be inducted by December next year. Currently, IndiGo it has a fleet of 170 A320 aircraft and operates about 930 flights daily.
In related news, Jet Airways and Vistara are expected to order about 100 aircraft each to augment their fleet size. "Jet Airways is expected to place an order for a further 100 narrow body aircraft – taking its total of the type to 175, while Vistara is likely to order 50 narrow-bodies and 50 wide-bodies," aviation consulting firm CAPA said in its Outlook 2017-18.
India has 12 domestic carriers, the biggest in terms of market share being IndiGo, followed by Jet Airways and state-owned Air India.
