Trading on Indian stock exchanges next Monday could see heightened activity in select scrips on the basis of data released on Friday evening after market hours, especially the domestic air traffic data for July. Shares of SpiceJet, Jet Airways and IndiGo-parent Interglobe Aviation could rise on the back of the buoyant numbers reported in the world's fastest-growing civil aviation market.
The country's low-cost and full-service carriers such as IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Go Air, AirAsia India, Vistara and state-run Air India, and few smaller players, flew 85.08 lakh (8.5 million) passengers during the month, an increase of 25.82 percent, YoY.
IndiGo maintained its lead as the largest carrier by market share at 39.8 percent, its highest in the past seven months, followed by Jet Airways at 16.3 percent. Air India saw its share decline to 14.8 percent in July 2016 from 15.5 percent in the preceding month.
Interglobe Aviation shares closed at Rs. 880.25 apiece, Jet Airways at Rs. 537.70 and SpiceJet at Rs. 58.70. The July traffic data was released by the DGCA after market hours on Friday.
The BSE Sensex closed at 28,077 on Friday, gaining 46 points, while the NSE Nifty 50 lost six points to end at 8,666. The 30-scrip benchmark equity BSE index rally was driven by State Bank of India (SBI), Tata Steel and Cipla, while stocks that pulled the index down included Coal India, TCS, Lupin and Wipro.
NSE Nifty 50 gainers included SBI, Bank of Baroda, Hindalco and Aurobindo Pharma.
On Friday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs/FPIs) were net buyers of Indian equities worth Rs. 409.94 crore, according to provisional data published by the NSE.
SBI shares gained 4.15 percent on Friday after the country's biggest lender by assets informed the stock exchanges informed the stock exchanges on Thursday that its board approved merger of associate banks of SBI and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself.
"State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore and Bhartiya Mahila Bank will be in focus as SBI has approved its merger with these banks," Dynamic Levels said in a note.
Shares of Infosys dropped almost 4 percent during the week over the company losing out a key project of its client, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
