Tuesday, 24 March 2015 19:27
LONDON: Shares in European planemaker Airbus and German airline Lufthansa tumbled after a plane in its low-cost division Germanwings crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday, with all 150 people on board feared killed.
The Airbus A320 jet, on its way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, came down near a ski resort in the Barcelonnette area in southeastern France, officials said.
“In light of the information available at the present time we cannot say whether there are survivors or how many there might be,” Germanwings chief executive, Oliver Wagner, said in a brief statement on German television.
In late morning deals, Lufthansa’s share price dived more than four percent in Frankfurt.
The stock stood at 13.48 euros in afternoon trade, down 2.17 percent from Monday and the worst performer on the German stock market. Airbus shares sank 1.27 percent to 59.25 euros in Paris.
“Tragically, market movement cannot always been driven by pure stats,” said Connor Campbell, analyst at Spreadex trading group.
“News that a Germanwings plane has crashed in the south of France caused a fall in (the share price of) Lufthansa … alongside Airbus, the plane’s manufacturer,” he told AFP.
“Very sad news and we have seen airline names drop on the back of this,” said Guardian Stockbrokers analyst Atif Latif.
“Much of the selling is due to uncertainty as to the cause, but questions will be asked and investor confidence and the impact of passenger numbers should not be underestimated,” he added.
European stock markets however were slightly higher overall.
Frankfurt’s benchmark DAX 30 index of top companies was up 0.11 percent to 11,908.85 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.31 percent to 5,070.32 points.
London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares added 0.12 percent to 7,046.37 points.
Europe’s main stock markets had initially fallen in the wake of disappointing Chinese manufacturing data.
Asian equity markets turned in mixed performances after a gauge of Chinese manufacturing plunged to an 11-month low in March.
However Shanghai climbed 0.10 percent to a near seven-year high after reversing an early sell-off on hopes the weak data will spur fresh economy-boosting measures.
Hong Kong finished 0.39 percent lower and Tokyo shed 0.21 percent after closing Monday at a 15-year high.
Seoul rose 0.23 percent and Sydney put on 0.22 percent.
In foreign exchange activity on Tuesday, the European single currency slipped to $ 1.0920 from $ 1.0945 late on Monday in New York.
Comments from the US Federal Reserve’s vice chairman suggesting interest rates would rise more slowly than expected put further downward pressure on the dollar.
Wall Street stocks opened little changed Tuesday after data on US consumer prices showed a rise in February for the first time in four months.
Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 18,101.95, down 0.08 percent.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.06 percent to 2,103.19, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was flat, up 0.01 percent to 5,011.50.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015
