Aviation stocks soar as oil prices dip

Stocks of airline companies, which were suffering, have found some succour thanks to the fall in crude oil prices.

Stock prices of the two listed airlines - Spice Jet and Jet Airways - were up 15-18 per cent in the past week on hopes that the fall in crude oil prices would help these companies improve profitability by reducing operating costs. Fuel prices account for as much as 40 per cent of the total operating costs of airlines in India. Brent crude oil prices were down to $89.63 a barrel on Friday, down 3.63 per cent in the past week.

Online shopping meets online trading

Last week was a carnival of sorts for the Indian e-commerce space. Domestic brokerage Karvy Stock Broking made an attempt to cash in on this with a smart advertising tie-up with online retail poster boy Flipkart. The brokerage placed a banner on Flipkart's homepage to lure people to open an account and trade in stock markets. Incidentally, Flipkart was one of the most-visited websites last week in the country.