Kingfisher Airlines caught in bear-bull fight

Shares of loss-making Kingfisher Airlines ended marginally down at Rs 47.95 on Thursday, after the government asked Hindustan Petroleum to invoke the airline firm’s corporate guarantee because of unpaid fuel bills of around Rs 600 crore.

Interestingly, the stock witnessed heavy delivery-based volumes on both exchanges. On the NSE, nearly 23 lakh shares or 55% of the total traded volumes resulted in delivery. In the past six trading sessions (including Thursday), delivery volumes in the stock have been in the range of 37-55%. In a related development, the market-wide position limit for Kingfisher in the derivative segment has already been breached.

It is not clear if the outstanding positions have been built by bears anticipating a downtrend, or by a bull cartel, which is now accumulating the shares to squeeze the short sellers. For passengers flying it, Kingfisher may be the king of good times. But punters in the stock could be in for some turbulent times, depending on which side of the trade they are on.

Contributed by Santosh Nair & Nishanth Vasudevan.