Boeing 737 Max 8 grounding impact on stock market: SpiceJet plunges 8%, Jet Airways tumbles 4% - What investors should know

Boeing 737 Max 8: The share price of both SpiceJet and Jet Airways tumbled, after when Aviation ministry decided to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 jets following two plane crashes within 5 months period. However, it was SpiceJet which took the most beating of investors. At around 1440 hours, SpiceJet share price was trading at Rs 76.70 per piece down by 2.66% on Sensex. However, the airline has plunged by nearly 8% with an intraday low of Rs 72.50 per piece on the index. Meanwhile, Jet Airways was performing at Rs 239.95 per piece below 2.32% on Sensex currently, however, in the first half of the trading session, the airline has tumbled by nearly 4% after touching an intraday low of Rs 236.70 per piece. 

After Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked all the airlines to "immediately" ground the Boeing 737 Max 8, SpiceJet had to ban 12 such aircraft in its fleet, while Jet Airways have already grounded five due to its own internal issues. 

It is only SpiceJet and Jet Airways who currently have Boeing 737 Max 8. A meeting is expected to take place anytime soon between DGCA and airlines to decide the future course of 737 Max 8 operations within India. 

A DGCA spokesperson, on Wednesday morning, said, "The B737Max operations will stop from/to all Indian airport's. Additionally, no B737 Max aircraft will be allowed to enter or transit the Indian airspace effective 1600hrs Indian time or 1030 UTC." 

He said that the timeline is to cater to situations where aircraft can be positioned at maintenance facilities and international flights can reach their destinations.

India is not alone to ban Boeing 737 Max 8, other countries like China, South Africa, Morocco, Poland, Ethiopia, Singapore, Indonesia, Netherlands, Mongolia, Argentina, Cayman Island,  Iceland, Ireland, France, Malaysia, Germany, Oman and UK have also done the same. 

In India, SpiceJet and Jet Airways alone have 116 and 125 of Boeing 737 Max 8.

The reason behind ground Boeing 737 Max 8 is due to back-to-back two plane crashes killing everyone on board within five months span of time. At first, it was Lion Air crash in October 2018, and now Ethiopian Airline crash last week, which has made the majority of countries to ground the Boeing 737 Max. 

On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 travelling to Nairobi, crashed within six minutes of takeoff near Bishoftu which was less than 40 miles away from Addis Ababa airport from where the airline took off. On board 157 passengers including crew members, all died.