Asia Pacific airline investors brace for stormy conditions
Asia Pacific airline shares could be in for a rough ride today after scary falls on Wall Street overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 348 points or 3.2% overnight to 10,520, having plunged as much as 998.5 points or 9.2% (the biggest intra-day fall in history), due to weak corporate profits, concerns over Greece's debt problems and accelerated by "a number of erroneous trades" during the plunge, according to a NYSE spokesperson.
Asian airlines shares were sold off heavily yesterday, led by the Chinese carriers, Air China (-8.0%), China Southern (-7.3%), Hainan Airlines (-6.6%) and China Eastern (-5.1%).
Singapore share prices ended lower on Thursday, with The Straits Times Index (STI) dropping 0.7%. Singapore Airlines ended just 12 cents lower (-0.8%) at SGD14.60. Qantas also fell 0.8% while Thai Airways gained 1.9%.
Asia Pacific selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 06-May-2010