After trading in the negative territory during the post noon trading session the Indian equity markets closed the day on a weak note as selling activity increased towards the end. The BSE-Sensex closed lower by about 338 points while the NSE-Nifty too closed weak registering loss of 1.2%. Following the broader market trend, the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices closed lower by 1.16% and 1.2% respectively.
Stock markets in other parts of Asia ended the day on a firm note, while sentiments in Europe seemed to be dull at the time of writing. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.93 to the dollar at the time of writing.
Majority of the engineering stocks ended the day on a weak note. However, Thermax closed the day in the green and touched its 52 week high in early hours of trade. The rally came after the company disclosed it won orders worth Rs 3.5 bn in Africa to build a captive power plant. This is a repeat order from some African industrial major to support its cement operations. The scope of work includes design, installation, manufacturing etc. It may be noted that in the month of October Thermax had received an Rs 3.2 bn order from the same African company to supply power equipments.
Aviation stocks closed the day on a mixed note. The stock of Spice Jet fell by about 15% intraday today. Later it gathered some ground and closed with losses of 4.4%. The company is already plagued with survival issues amidst accumulated losses of over Rs 30 bn. Not to mention the debt burden of Rs 40 bn. On the top of this, the Department General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revoked flight slots that SpiceJet had not been using and has asked the troubled airline major to pay the unpaid salaries of staff before Dec 15. Amidst all this operational mess, majority of the pilots from the company have joined rivals creating labor problems for the company. The board of Spice Jet is about to meet today and discuss all such operational matters including recapitalizing the company.
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