Cebu Air plunges 38% after trading error by local broker

Shares of the Philippines’ largest budget carrier plunged by a record, wiping out 21.3 billion pesos ($415 million, Dh1.5 billion) in market value, after a local broker made a trading error.

Cebu Air Inc slumped 38 per cent in the last few minutes of trading and the volume of shares changing hands was below the three-month average. The order happened during the Philippine Stock Exchange’s no-cancel period at the end of the day.

“It was a trader error,” a representative at Quality Investment & Securities Corp, which executed the trade, said by phone. “Our brokerage wasn’t meaning to sell Cebu Air shares.”

Cebu Air CEO Lance Gokongwei said earlier in a text message that the share price drop was likely a fat-finger trade. “Price should recover tomorrow,” he said. A spokesperson for the Philippine Stock Exchange declined to comment.

Cebu Air, which last month ordered 31 Airbus SE aircraft worth $6.8 billion to meet its goal to have an all-new fleet in five years, will likely nearly double its profit this year, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.