Anton Rychener, the UN agency's representative in Vietnam, said Friday bird flu has been found in pigs in the country, Agence France-Presse reported. A new strain mutated in pigs could be much more dangerous, officials at the World Health Organization have said.
Benchmarks in Hong Kong and Thailand slid last week on concern the spread of the bird flu virus in the region will damp travel demand and curb consumer spending.
"This is good progress for the government to clean up the infected areas," said Suppamas Payakapan, a strategist at Phillip Securities (Thailand) Pcl. "This works to help gain confidence among investors."
The Bloomberg Asia Pacific Airlines Index, which tracks 13 carriers in the region, gained 1.9 percent this week.
Singapore Air, the world's second-biggest carrier by market value, added 0.9 percent to S$11.40. The airline on Thursday said profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 more than doubled to S$378 million (US$224 million) from a year ago, topping the median forecast of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
"It's a pretty good set of results," said Caleb Woo, who helps manages US$1.4 billion at DBS Asset Management Ltd in Singapore. "If you look at the regional traffic statistics for airlines, it's all been rising."
All Nippon Airways, Asia's second-biggest airline by sales, gained 1 percent to ¥292. The airline earned 6.9 billion yen in the third quarter, compared with a loss a year earlier, and plans to pay its first dividend in seven years.
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