Carmaker Aston Martin swings to a half-year loss

LONDON (Reuters) - Aston Martin <AML.L> swung to a half-year pretax loss of 78.8 million pounds as profits were hit by expansion costs, lower average selling prices and weaker-than-anticipated volumes, the luxury British carmaker said on Wednesday.

The carmaker has been undergoing a turnaround plan since Chief Executive Andy Palmer took over in 2014, designed to renew and boost its model line-up and move into new segments, resulting in an autumn 2018 stock market flotation.

But its share price has since fallen by more than two-thirds from 19 pounds ($23.00) in October to under 6 pounds, hit by a weakening performance in Europe, the Middle East and Africa where demand fell by nearly a fifth in the first six months of the year.

"We are disappointed that our projections for wholesales have fallen short or our original targets impacted by weakness in two of our key markets as well as continued macro-economic uncertainty," said Palmer.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas, editing by Paul Sandle)