Airline stocks post modest gains

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Airline stocks rose modestly on Friday with the low-cost carriers leading the way. The NYSE Arca Airline Index (xal) edged up 0.1% to 34.32 points with all but four of its 15 components trading up. For the week the sector benchmark is up about 8%. Shares of low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways (jblu) added roughly 1% to $4.53, Republic Airways (rjet) rose 1% to $3.09 and Southwest Airlines (luv) climbed 1% to $8.67. Declining were U.S.-shares of Ryanair Holdings (ryaay) and Copa Holdings (cpa) , as well as Delta Air Lines (dal) . Meanwhile, the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index (spx) rose 0.48% to roughly 1,215 points.

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