Honda Sinks 3% On Outlook; Competitors' Shares Unaffected

Automakers' shares shrugged off a move by Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) HMC Tuesday to trim its full-year income outlook by nearly 6 percent.

Honda said changes in its business environment "in some Asian countries" spurred it to cut its profit estimate for the year ending March 31. The company also trimmed its full-year sales outlook by 0.4 percent because of "decreased unit sales."

Honda fell nearly 4 percent around midday Tuesday to $29.66 per share, but other stocks in the sector appeared unaffected.

For the recent period ended September 30, Honda blamed a 4.1 percent decline in operating income on lower sales volume and model mix, as well as higher costs for research and development.

Honda Motor appears to have by far the most at stake among automakers in the recent airbag recall, with about five million of the 7.8 million vehicles on the recall list so far.

Toyota Motor Corp TM is next on the list, with about 877,000 affected vehicles, while Frankfurt-listed BMW, Nissan Motor Co Ltd NSANY and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV FCAU each break six figures in the number of recalled vehicles.

Toyota was nearly unchanged Tuesday at $114.35 per share; Nissan was off 0.2 percent at 17.55 per share.

Fiat Chrysler was up 4.6 percent to $9.66, while General Motors Company GM gained 3 percent to $30.99 and Ford Motor Company F gained 1 percent to $13.96 a share.