Airline stocks extended losses for the second consecutive day after the government announced suspension of all flights from the UK to the country until the end of the year following the discovery of a new strain of COVID-19, which is said to be 70 per cent more transmissible than the existing virus. India joins a growing list of countries, including Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium, that have announced travel to the UK as the world heads into Christmas and New Year holidays.
At 11:30 am, SpiceJet was down 8.66 per cent to Rs 83.50, while InterGlobe Aviation dropped 2.41 per cent to Rs 1,469.60 and and Jet Airways weakened by 4.9 per cent to Rs 100.85 on the BSE. These stocks have shed more than 16 per cent in the past two days.
"This suspension to start from 22nd December 2020. Consequently, flights from India to the UK shall stand temporarily suspended during the above said period," the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Twitter on December 21. Passengers arriving from the UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before December 22 at 23.59 hrs) would be subjected to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports concerned, the Ministry added.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government issued its own set of travel guidelines, making institutional quarantine for 14 days mandatory for people returning from Europe and Middle East.
The BSE Sensex was at 45,201.09, lower by 345.08 points or 0.78 per cent and the NSE Nifty was at 13,220.85, down 106.45 points or 0.81 per cent at the time.
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