KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 27): AirAsia Bhd fell as much as 10 sen or 7% after the budget airline reported third-quarter and nine-month net losses from a year earlier. 
 
Yesterday, AirAsia said it posted a net loss of RM405.73 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) versus a net profit of RM5.4 million.
 
9MFY15 net loss stood at RM13.37 million compared to a net profit of RM512.27 million.

Today, AirAsia shares fell to RM1.30, the stock's lowest so far. At 9:51am, the stock pared losses at RM1.33 with some 15 million units done.

AirAsia was the eighth most-active stock across Bursa Malaysia. At RM1.33, AirAsia has a market capitalisation of RM3.7 billion.

Analysts downgraded AirAsia shares following the company's latest financial report. TA Securities Holdings Bhd analyst Tan Kam Meng wrote in a note today the research firm cut its target price for AirAsia to RM1.58 from RM1.68 and downgraded the stock to "hold".

Tan said TA was mindful of potential foreign selling in AirAsia shares  in anticipation that the ringgit could weaken further. 

"Although we are positive on the group’s fundamental against the backdrop of low jet fuel price, we are concerned about the investment risk associated with foreign fund exit as the ringgit would likely depreciate further when the Fed raises interest rate in Dec-15," Tan said.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)