Most Southeast Asian stock Markets edged higher on Monday as domestic institutions bought large caps ahead of year-end but shares in Malaysia’s AirAsia plunged after one of the company’s aircraft went missing on Sunday.
AirAsia shares fell 7.8 percent, their biggest one-day drop in more than three years, following Sunday’s incident involving the airline’s Indonesia unit, Reuters reported.
The Bangkok-listed shares of Asia Aviation, the holding company of Thai AirAsia, in which the AirAsia group holds a 45 percent stake, were down 3.6 percent on Monday. Broker Asia Plus Securities rated Thai Asia Aviation shares ‘buy’ as it expected no financial impact due to Indonesia’s AirAsia incident.
“The share weakness was due to an indirect impact in terms of weak sentiment on Indonesia’s AirAsia. We keep our earnings forecast for Thai Asia Aviation,” it said.
China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed to the highest level since January 2010 and Hong Kong shares jumped the most in a year amid speculation that government steps to spur lending will bolster economic growth.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index climbed 4 percent to 12,019.75 at the close, the biggest gain since Nov. 2013. Hong Kong’s stock market was shut the last two trading days of last week for the holidays, when the Shanghai Composite surged 6.2 percent. The Shanghai gauge advanced 0.3 percent to 3,168.02.
The Philippine stock index rose 0.62 percent on its last trading day for the year. It ended the year at a two-week high of 7,230.57, rising 22.8 percent in 2014, among the region’s outperformers. That compares with a modest 1.3 percent rise in 2013.
The Philippine stock market will be closed from Dec. 30-Jan.2, reopening on Jan. 5.
