Alcoa at 17-month low before steadying

NEW YORK, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA - news) shares declined throughout most of Tuesday morning, trading as low as $25-1/4 before steadying on heavy volume after the big aluminum company warned late Monday that third quarter earnings would fall short of analysts expectations.

That was the lowest price paid for Alcoa stock since April 1999 and a drop of 10.6 percent from the company's closing price on the New York Stock Exchange prior to the warning.

The stock of the other large North American aluminum producer, Alcan Aluminium Ltd. (Toronto:AL.TO - news), slipped 5.7 percent before recovering to trade at $44.85, down $1.30 on the Toronto stock Exchange. California-based Century Aluminum (NasdaqNM:CENX - news) was down 2.9 percent -- 3/8 to $12-5/8 on Nasdaq.

But the fourth North American producer, Kaiser Aluminum (NYSE:KLU - news), saw its stock advance 2.5 percent -- 1/8 to $5-1/8 -- on news it had reached an agreement with workers who struck the company two years ago.

In early afternoon trading, Alcoa shares steadied at $25-13/16, off $1-3/16 from third market trading late Monday after its earnings warning and down $2-7/16 from the NYSE close, on composite volume of 7.9 million shares.