Shipping stocks jump 1-18% on hopes of govt's financial aid

Shipping stocks rallied 1-18 percent on Wednesday riding on hopes to get capital infusion. In a bid to promote domestic shipbuilding industry, the government is mulling a financial assistance scheme, which could include a shipbuilding fund to provide soft loans to players.

Gautam Chatterjee, Director General of Shipping said in an interview to CNBC-TV18, “Subsidy certainly is one area, but it could be direct subsidy or in the form of interest subvention. There could be also tying up with offsets of the defence procurement. So there are various sectors which I think the government is looking into.”

Meanwhile, the Baltic Dry Index is up 3 percent. The index is down 48 percent on a year-to-date basis, but had spiked up from August hitting 4-month high.

The Baltic Exchange’s Shipping Indexes are widely followed by analysts, money managers, shipping companies and investors because they proviade benchmark rates for transporting dry bulk commodities such as iron ore, coal, and grain across water.

Higher shipping rates are generally positive for shipping companies’ revenues, which will positively affect earnings, cash flows, and share prices.