KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 10): Shares in AirAsia Group Bhd rose to a one-month high in early active trade today due to the group’s solid rebound for air travel demand.

At the time of writing, AirAsia had risen 7.24% or six sen to 82 sen, valuing the group at RM2.54 billion. It saw some 35.28 million shares traded.

It was the eighth most active stock on Bursa Malaysia this morning.

The stock grew 22.39% from its low of 67 sen on Jan 25.

Bernama news report quoted the group as saying that AirAsia Malaysia closed the fourth quarter (4Q) with 834,934 passengers carried on a healthy 72% load factor, despite the setback in October and November given the reimplementation of interstate travel restrictions.

“AirAsia Group Bhd is navigating its recovery phase exceptionally well as key operational metrics improved in December 2020 in comparison to September 2020. This is shown by the 31% increase in passengers carried by AirAsia Thailand (TAA), doubling of passengers carried by AirAsia Philippines (PAA), and number of passengers carried by AirAsia Indonesia, which multiplied by a whopping 11 times,” said Bernama.

Meanwhile, Public Invest Research in a note today said: “AAGB’s 4QFY20 results and passenger yield data [are] expected to be released in two weeks' time, which we believe will continue to be under pressure due to lower passenger traffic and loss in revenue.”

However, the research house maintains its "underperform" call on the group, with an unchanged target price of 39 sen.