KUALA LUMPUR: Shares in AirAsia X Bhd
surged 5.5 sen or 8.08% to 73.5 sen a share at the start of Wednesday trading following a positive earnings performance in its recent quarter.
Within minutes of the opening bell, the share soared 39.7% to an early morning high of 95 sen.
As at 9.25am, the stock was trading 18 sen or 26.47% higher at 86 sen a share on high volume of 18.76 million shares.
Yesterday, the long-haul budget carrier reported that its net profit in the three months to Dec 31, 2022, was RM153.5mil, representing an earnings per share of 37 sen, on revenue of RM339.3mil.
The net profit result was a six-fold increase quarter-on-quarter from RM25.09mil, which the airline attributed to record average base fare and a higher passenger load factor.
For the 18 months ended Dec 31, AAX posted a net profit of almost RM33bil, or earnings per share of 7951.20 sen. Its revenue for the period stood at RM878.2mil.
"For the year 2023, the company expects to relaunch more of its profitable destinations and looks forward to the return to China with the announcement of the reopening of the country’s border in January 2023, in addition to our planned inaugural flight to Turkey this year," said AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail in a statement.
"The company is optimistic of the upward fare trend in the near term as demand for international air travel remains high," he added.
Meanwhile, AirAsia X's sister company, Capital A Bhd, was also seeing heavy buying interest in its shares.
At the time of writing, the share was trading 4.5 sen or 6.72% higher at 71.5 sen a share on the back of 25.23 million units exchanging hands.
