Business

Tony Fernandes felt that the cost of operating an airline were still higher than many developed nations.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and State Bank of India came off day's high.

The EGoM also decided to recommend to the Cabinet a one-time fee on existing telecom operators for spectrum they hold beyond 4.4 MHz.

While brokers speculated that it could have been caused by a freak trade, NSE said that it was shut due to execution of bulk orders.

The DGCA has also raised serious concerns over the non-payment of salaries to the employees of Kingfisher Airlines.

The BSE benchmark rose 61.17 points to close at 18,823.91 while the NSE benchmark gained 15.50 points at 5,718.80.

The decision came in the backdrop of government increasing diesel price and retail inflation crossing the double digits.

The 30-share BSE Sensex shed gains for the second consecutive session after rising consistently for 1200 points in previous nine sessions.

Sensex is also likely to rise over the diesel price hike and global cues.

The government on Thursday hiked diesel prices by a steep Rs 5.62 per litre and restricted the supply of subsidised cooking gas to 6 cylinders per household in a year to fetch an additional Rs 20,300 crore.

A cabinet committee agreed to raise diesel prices by 12 per cent, or 5 rupees per litre.

Chidambaram on Wednesday said the government would continue efforts to find practical solutions to boost output.

Mukherjee said if subsidies are not contained below 2 per cent of the GDP, it may pose a serious problem for the economy.

While Air India introduced the increased fuel surcharge on Tuesday, Jet Airways would raise it from Wednesday,

Debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines saw its headcount fall by over 1,600 people or 22 per cent in the last fiscal.

IndiGo cancelled just 0.3 per cent of its total flights between July 2011 and June this year.