SpiceJet shares rallied on the stock exchanges on Friday, gaining far more than its peers Jet Airways and Indigo-owner Interglobe Aviation, as the stock is seen as having significant upside to it from the current levels. The SpiceJet stock rose 5.82 perent to hit an intraday high of Rs. 61.80 before receding to Rs. 60.65 at around 3.11 p.m. on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The 52-week high for the stock is Rs. 95.30.
In comparison, Jet Airways was up 0.86 percent at Rs. 455.80 while Interglobe Aviation was almost flat Rs. 936.55.
SpiceJet shares are tipped to reach Rs. 75 while the target price for Interglobe Aviation is Rs. 1,225, according to a civil aviation sector update issued by ICICI Securities last month.
The second quarter is expected to be upbeat, according to the brokerage, which added that the top pick in the sector was Interglobe Aviation. "IndiGo remains our top pick in the sector, fundamentals remain intact and fear of delays in neo is overdone," it said.
The brokerage also analysed fares in the domestic market to study the trends during the September quarter.
"Characteristically, the weakest quarter of all, airfares in domestic circuit has been better than expected. We have tracked the domestic fares across 14 routes among 6 metros in India.
"As a methodology, we have recorded fares for the next day, next week and next month to catch the temporal distribution of the fares. We started the collection process since July 2016. For fares next day, the average fares have increased from the day we started taking observations for 13 out of the 14 routes. For fares next week, the average fares have increased from the day we started taking observations for 9 out of the 14 routes," ICICI Securities said.
SpiceJet, which has scripted a turnaround story, posting sixth consecutive profitable quarter in June this year, when its net profit almost doubled to Rs. 142.9 crore from Rs.72.9 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
Total income from operations stood at Rs. 1,521.52 crore in Q1, up 36.65 percent from Rs. 1,113 crore in the year-ago period.
The market share of SpiceJet in India's domestic air traffic business was 12.6 percent in August as against 11.7 percent in July. The passenger load factor (PLF) for the budget carrier was 93.2 percent and has been hovering around that level for the past few months, indicating high operational efficiency.
Indian domestic carriers comprising Indigo, Jet Airways, Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir, Vistara, Air India and others flew about 83.81 lakh (8.38 million) passengers during the month of August, an increase of 24 percent over 67.60 lakh passengers flown in August 2015.
The largest carrier is Indigo, with a market share of about 39.9 percent in August, followed by Jet Airways, state-run Air India and SpiceJet.
