Airline shares tumble up to 10 pc; SpiceJet locked in lower circuit

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

Shares of IndiGo and SpiceJet traded with heavy losses during the day.

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 during the day. It managed to recover most of its losses and ended marginally lower by 0.76 per cent at Rs 1,010.75.

SpiceJet dropped 9.99 per cent to hit lower circuit at Rs 43.70.

Hundreds of cancelled flights and decline in daily ticket bookings continue to rattle the country's aviation space as airlines with weakened financials 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, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty staged a unprecedented recovery after witnessing their worst-ever intraday crash in early session.

Recovering over 5,380 points from intra-day low of 29,388.97, the BSE Sensex ended 1,325.34 points, or 4.04 per cent, higher at 34,103.48.

Similarly, NSE Nifty settled 365.05 points, or 3.81 per cent, higher at 9,955.20. It hit an intra-day low of 8,555.15.