Budget carrier AirAsia has become the latest target of short sellers, with the shares in a tailspin despite analysts saying there's nothing new in a negative research report from GMT Research. 

"People don't want uncertainty," said Mohshin Aziz, an analyst covering AirAsia at Maybank-KimEng.

"People get fearful and dump the stock," he added, noting that short-sellers' track record of successfully pushing down shares with negative reports may also be spurring selling.

The type of investors who like to buy into airline shares may also be a factor, Aziz said. "It has a habit of attracting eager beavers," Aziz said.

It is, after all, an old joke: How do you become a millionaire? You start with a billion dollars and invest in an airline.

The stock has certainly reacted to GMT's report; shares were down as much as 12.8 percent in intra-day trade Wednesday, touching 1.43ringgit ($0.38), their lowest level since 2011 and marking a nearly 35 percent drop month-to-date.

It's not entirely clear what's in the report from GMT, which calls itself an accounting research firm, not a short seller. GMT's website said its report questions AirAsia's "accounting, profit generation, cash flow issues, leverage and group structure," but it didn't release the report to non-subscribers, saying it has a press embargo until June 24.

Several other analysts' reports noted that GMT is setting a target price of around 1.20 ringgit for the shares; those reports cited GMT as questioning AirAsia's solvency, raising the possibility of a dilutive rights issue and concerns the carrier might have inflated aircraft lease income from associates.

For his part, Aziz said there are no new issues in the report .

"We and the analyst community have already deliberated it meticulously," he said in a note last week, adding that AirAsia's accounts were transparent and its auditing firm, PwC, respectable. Aziz rates the stock at buy, with 2.45 ringgit target.

To be sure, one of the GMT accusations cited by analysts carries the weight of a legitimate concern, even if it's not new; the parent company is owed around 2.8 billion ringgit by its Indonesian and Philippine associates and some of these payments are overdue.

In the wake of the GMT report, AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes issued a letter to investors dated Monday outlining strategies to reduce the carrier's gearing levels, including a move by the Indonesian and Philippine associates raising equity of around $100 million each from their local partners to pay the parent company -- a step Fernandes said was "in final discussions."

He also said he expected AirAsia's net gearing level to fall to around 2.0 times by the end of this year, from 2.47 times currently, which was already down from 4.2 times "a couple of years back."

Some analysts were skeptical of suggestions the loans to associates represented an existential threat.