Malaysia Airlines MH17: US Airline Stocks Recover After Crash Shock

Airline stocks in the US recovered lost ground after tumbling in the aftermath of the shooting down of a passenger plane over troubled eastern Ukraine.

The New York Stock Exchange's ARCA Airline Index climbed by more than 1% in early trading on 18 July, while the Dow Jones US Airlines Index lifted by more than 2%, largely erasing the previous day's losses.

Malaysia Airlines shares, whose Boeing 777 plane was taken down, had lost more than 11% in the day's trading on the Bursa Malays exchange. They had already suffered a significant loss in value after another plane, known as MH370, went missing over the Indian Ocean in March 2014.

It is believed that in the latest tragedy flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down near Donetsk in Ukraine by a Russian separatist group called the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), which is battling for independence from the Ukrainian government.

Several Ukrainian military planes have been shot down by surface-to-air missiles in the area during recent months as the conflict grinds on. DPR denies responsibility, instead pointing the blame at the Ukrainian government.

But the US and Ukraine governments have both said they have seen evidence to believe that the Russian separatists are behind the incident, which left 298 people dead, many of them children. Some reports suggest the military equipment used came from over the border in Russia.