Last Updated: April 27, 2009 04:07 EDT
By Chen Shiyin and Chua Kong Ho
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Airlines and meat-processing companies slumped in Asia on concern the growing number of swine-flu cases in the U.S. and Mexico will slow a recovery in the global economy and hurt earnings. Medical shares gained.
Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea’s largest carrier, lost 7.4 percent, while China Yurun Food Group Ltd., the country’s biggest hog processor, tumbled 10 percent in Hong Kong trading. Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. and South Korea’s Yuhan Corp. both surged by at least 14 percent on speculation demand for the antiviral drug Tamiflu will increase, helping drive the MSCI Asia-Pacific Health Care Index to the largest gain among the regional index’s 10 industry groups.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index retreated 0.4 percent to 89.13 as of 4:01 p.m. in Hong Kong. The spread of swine flu, a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type-A influenza, raised concern that the outbreak will be worse than the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic in 2003 that killed 774 people and infected 8,098 globally.
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