STOCKS NEWS SINGAPORE-OCBC downgrades Tiger Airways to 'hold'

OCBC Investment Research downgraded budget carrier Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd to 'hold' from 'buy' and cut its target price to S$0.81 from S$0.83, citing a challenging outlook in Australia.

At 0132 GMT, Tiger shares were down 0.7 percent at S$0.755. They have gained 18.9 percent this year, compared with the FTSE ST Consumer Services Index's 4.1 percent rise.

As Tiger ramps up its Australian operations, it faces an influx of capacity from competitors such as Qantas and Virgin, which will impact the prices Tiger can command and its profitability, OCBC said.

Although the brokerage expects Tiger to turn profitable by the third quarter of 2013, its estimate for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell to S$35.8 million from S$48.9 million for the year ending March 2013.

0934 (0134 GMT)

(Reporting by Charmian Kok in Singapore; charmian.kok@thomsonreuters.com)