MAS Shares falls since MH370 Vanishes

www.bloomberg.com

Since the missing air flight MH370 three days ago, Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS) shares headed for the biggest decline in nine months.

The stock sank 10 percent to 22.5 sen at 10:03 a.m. local time, poised for the lowest close on record, after falling as much as 18 percent. It was the most active on Kuala Lumpur’s exchange with 212 million shares traded. The benchmark FTSEBursa Malaysia KLCI Index slid 0.6 percent, while the ringgit weakened 0.6 percent against the dollar.

Malaysia stepped up efforts to locate the jet that may have crashed in the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board, focusing on oil slicks. The prospect of terrorism arose after Austria and Italy said passports used by two male passengers were stolen from their citizens.

The oil slicks discovered by Vietnamese military aircraft were about 140 kilometers south of Tho Chu Island in the Gulf of Thailand, off the South China Sea. Searchers looking for the missing Boeing Co. (BA) 777-200 said they found a suspected window or door fragment.

China Southern

Le Van Minh, a Vietnamese coast guard commander, said in a telephone interview today that the fragment is suspected to be part of a plane’s emergency door or window, and that rough seas and darkness were preventing crews from retrieving it. Ships are still searching the area for the piece, which was spotted by helicopter 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Vietnam’s Tho Chu Island, Minh said.

Flight 370 departed the Malaysian capital at about 12:41 a.m. local time March 8 and was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. Security screening was performed as usual at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd. (MAHB) said.

The twin-engine, wide-body plane carried 227 passengers and 12 crew members, with Chinese travelers accounting for the largest group by nationality at 153, including an infant, the airline said. Also aboard were three U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. State Department.

Interpol said in a statement that at least two passports recorded in its database, one Austrian and one Italian, were used by passengers on the flight after being reported stolen in Thailand. Two people using stolen Italian and Austrian passports had consecutive ticket numbers, suggesting the tickets were issued together, Cable News Network reported, citing the Chinese e-ticket verification system Travelsky.

The missing plane was a code-share service with China Southern Airlines Co. (1055), which said it sold seven tickets on the flight, including to people of Austrian and Italian nationality, according to the company’s microblog.

While the Malaysia Airports Holdings shares fell 3.8 percent, China Southern Airlines which is also affected and results of dropped 3.1 percent in Hong Kong trading, heading for the lowest close since Feb. 6. The Bloomberg World Airlines Index slipped 0.3 percent.

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