Stock Earnings: Singapore Airlines weaker than expected annual earnings!

Singapore Airlines Ltd may edge lower after reporting weaker-than-expected earnings for the year to last March. SIA said its full-year net profit fell to 1.24 bln sgd from a restated figure of 1.35 bln a year earlier due to higher fuel expenses and foreign exchange losses. The figure was below the projected range of 1.26-1.35 bln sgd by analysts polled by XFN-Asia. An analyst with a local brokerage said he is keeping his "hold" rating on SIA with a fair value of 15 sgd as he does not see any share price catalyst at this stage. "It (share price) is not going to go up much more unless they make a decision on the divestments," the analysts said, referring to SIA's potential sale of stakes in SIA Engineering and Singapore Airport Terminal Services. Any such divestment, however, is unlikely to happen anytime soon with SIA still undecided on the matter. "The board has considered it comprehensively and thoroughly but there is no consensus either way," SIA chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng said, adding that SIA does not need funds in the near to medium term.