SpiceJet shares gain 6.5% in intra-day trade on reports of $11 bn jet deal

Shares of budget carrier SpiceJet rose 6.5 per cent in the intra-day trade on Wednesday on reports of the airline being in talks with Boeing and Airbus Group for a $11 billion deal to acquire about 100 new narrow-body jets.

SpiceJet wants to buy more Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max aircraft, its chief financial officer Kiran Koteshwar told Reuters. He said the company plans to place an order by the end of this financial year and would look to raise fresh equity or debt to pay for the planes once it had decided how many to buy.

The airline's shares also got a boost after the company posted a profit of Rs 71.8 crore on Tuesday in its quarterly earnings for three months ended June 30, 2015.

The stock gained 6.57 per cent to Rs 28.35 - its 52-week high - in the intra-day trade at the BSE. The airline's shares closed at Rs 27.25 apiece with a gain of 0.65 points (2.44 per cent) on Wednesday.

In the previous session also, the stock had gained nearly 6 per cent.

SpiceJet, which was on the verge of closure late last year, on Tuesday posted second straight quarterly profit on lower expenses and higher seat occupancy.

The Gurgaon-based airline had posted a net loss of Rs 124.1 crore in the April-June quarter of 2014-15 fiscal.

Snapping seven-straight quarters of loss, the budget carrier returned to the black with a Rs 22.1 crore net profit in the three months ended March, 2015 after original promoter Ajay Singh took control.