KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): AirAsia Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd, which continued to pique investors' interest today after posting a stronger set of financial results in their respective fourth financial quarter in 2015 (4QFY15), have entered into correction level, according to analysts.

As of 11.17am today, both AirAsia X and AirAsia were ranked among the most actively-traded counters across the exchange.

AirAsia X was the most actively-traded counter, rising one sen or 3.64% to trade at 28.5 sen, after hitting a high of 29 sen earlier.

A total of 49.29 million shares were seen traded between 27 sen and 29 sen. The current price values it at RM1.61 billion.

AirAsia X's warrant (AAX-WA) took up the second place. It gained three sen or 33.33%, after 44.24 million units warrants were traded.

Meanwhile, AirAsia was the third most actively-traded stock on the local bourse. It gained five sen or 3.07% to trade at RM1.68, after hitting its intra-morning high of RM1.69, giving it a market capitalisation of RM4.54 billion.

Trading volume was high at 36.62 million traded shares, ranging from RM1.63 to RM1.69 a share.

Today, analysts are of the view that both counters have entered into correction stage, following a significant slump in share prices over the past years.

"Shares in AirAsia and AirAsia X have been on the downward spiral after the AirAsia QZ8501 crash since December 2014," an analyst with a local brokerage house said, believing the stocks were on the recovery to the post crisis level.

According to the analyst, AirAsia also suffered from foreign fund selling since last year, resulting from the weakening ringgit and crisis surrounding the company.

The analyst said this referred to the Hong Kong based research firm GMT Research, which apparently questioned the budget airline's accounting and cash flow in a report published on June 10 last year.

In the report, the research firm questioned AirAsia's accounting, profit generation, cash flow issues, leverage and group structure.

Prior to the incident, AirAsia was also hit by the crash of QZ8501, a flight operated by Indonesia AirAsia, an affiliate company of the group.

"The stock was traded at an RM2 level, before the crisis happened. I believe it could recover to the pre-crisis level in the long term," the analyst added.

With the lower jet fuel price and the stabilisation of ringgit against US dollar, analysts said both budget carriers could post stronger earnings in their first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16).

It is worth pointing out that AirAsia's shares fell to its historical low of 78 sen on Aug 26 last year, following the plane crash and alleged accounting issues.

This represented RM2.16 a share or 73.5% lower, as compared to its three years high of RM2.94 recorded on Dec 26, 2014.

AirAsia X, the affiliate company to AirAsia was also not spared from the negative sentiment. It lost 53.5 sen or 78.1% during the same period.