Short-lived reprieve for markets, AirAsia dips

KUALA LUMPUR: AIRASIA BHD [] continued to slide in heavy trade as Asian bourses, including Bursa Malaysia, fell on Thursday, Aug 11 following the overnight plunge at Wall Street where the Dow Jones lost more than 4.6%.

However, the decline at the regional markets was limited by a rise in US stock futures.

The FBM KLCI was down 11.63 points to 1,468.89 at 10am. Market breadth was negative with losers beating gainers by 493 to 74, while 139 counters traded unchanged. Volume was 249.14 million shares valued at RM416.18.

At the regional markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.29% to 8,92.32, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.67% to 19,452.74, the Shanghai Composite Index down 0.66% to 2,532.46, Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.51% to 7,619.41, South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.68% to 1,775.89 while Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 2.63% to 2,746.80.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd head of retail research and chief chartist Lee Cheng Hooi in a note to clients Aug 11 said that due to the US markets’ plunge last night, there would be some volatile trading activities at the local bourse today.

He said that from its opening “gap-down” move, local bargain hunting activity would prove futile due to a longer-term decline for the local and foreign indices.

“As such, investors must be quick to enter and exit intra-day trading positions with profits.

“Else, with a very volatile market like this, there are great chances of losing capital and profits if investors are too slow to press the sell button,” he said.

AirAsia was the most actively traded counter with 17.8 million shares done. The stock fell 14 sen to RM3.40, extending its losses from Wednesday as investors have appeared to view its tie-up with MALAYSIAN AIRLINE SYSTEM BHD [] negatively.

UOB Kay Hian Malaysia Research on Aug 10 had downgraded it to a Sell with a lower target price of RM3.50 from RM4.60.

The research house said that while an alliance between AirAsia and MAS would benefit Khazanah Nasional Bhd, it did not see AirAsia getting any benefit.

Decliners included MAS and Petronas Chemicals that fell two sen each to RM1.70 and RM6.17, Axiata down six sen to RM4.84, Top Glove 65 sen to RM5.23, Panasonic 48 sen to RM23, F&N 42 sen to RM18.04, Glenealy 20 sen to RM5.22, Tan Chong 29 sen to RM4.79, Batu Kawan 28 sen to RM15.14, Dutch Lady 20 sen to RM17.88 and United PLANTATION []s 18 sen to RM18.62.

Gainers included Bintulu Port, MSC, YTL Cement, Shell, Muhibbah, YTL Power, Chin Teck and Shangri-La.