AirAsia Stock tumbles Most Since 2011 After Flight disappears

After the Malaysian budget carrier’s flight QZ8501 vanished en route from Indonesia to Singapore, AirAsia Bhd. (AIRA) shares slided the most in three years. The stock tumbled about 13% to 2.56 ringgit prior to the closing of 8.5 percent lower in Kuala Lumpur. The trading volume of it's shares are amounting to about 14 times the three-month daily average. While shares were cut to a trading sell from buy at Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd., it lowered its price target to 2.64 ringgit from 3.15 ringgit. AirAsia X Bhd. (AAX), the long-haul arm of AirAsia then fell 8 percent.

Indonesia and three other nations are searching for the Airbus Group NV (AIR) A320 single-aisle plane that disappeared yesterday off the coast of Borneo. There were 155 passengers and seven crew on board. In March there was unresolved disappearance of Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS)’s Flight 370 and now AirAsia Bhd is facing the same fate.

The flight was out of reach from airport controllers at 7:24a.m. (Singapore time) on Sunday.

An investment manager,Samsung Asset Management Co. in Hong Kong, Alan Richardson said, “The AirAsia incident is worrying. Investor sentiment toward Malaysian aviation has been hurt by the unfortunate incidents.”


On March 8, Malaysian Airline’s Flight 370 disappeared from radar screens en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.  Authorities called it a deliberate act. There were no leftovers of the missing passenger jet.The stock tumbled down by 18 percent to a record low in its first day of trading after the flight went missing.

AirAsia shares had raised 34 percent in the 12 months through Dec. 26. The relative strength index of the stock rose to 74. The relative strength index above the 70 level signals that declines may be imminent to some investors.

There was a decline in company's net income. It was 5.4 million ringgit ($1.5 million) in the third quarter, lowered down by foreign-exchange losses. There was increase in annual earnings by 38 percent for 2014.

According to  AviationSafetyNetwork, AirAsia is the region’s biggest budget airline. It had no fatal crashes in its history of more than a decade of operations.