Cathay Pacific dropped from Hong Kong's Hang Seng after decades

Cathay Pacific Airways is losing its decades-old membership of Hong Kong’s benchmark equity gauge as the carrier struggles to revive earnings. The airline, in which Qatar Airways just acquired a stake, will be dropped along with Kunlun Energy as part of Hang Seng Indexes' quarterly review. The deletion is the latest blow for Cathay Pacific after it was removed from MSCI’s Hong Kong index in May. The airline has lost almost half its market valuation in the past 7 years as the carrier battled rising competition from Chinese rivals as well as suffering ill-judged fuel hedges. Rupert Hogg, who took over as CE this year, has been seeking to cut costs after the airline posted its biggest half-yearly loss in at least 2 decades. <br/>