Travel stocks head third consecutive opening gain for FTSE
The FTSE 100 opened with gains for the third consecutive day this morning as eurozone reports slowed and moved from the forefront of investor thinking as many focussed on bagging a bargain following the month’s high sell rate. Topping the gainers in morning trading was travel stock with TUI Travel (LON:TT) and Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) gaining in excess of three per cent.
Rob Hull
shareprices.com - Friday, May 28, 2010
Week-concluding gains for the Asian markets and a rally on Wall Street yesterday with the S&P gaining more than three per cent have encouraged a growth for the UK’s top index.
Investor confidence has reaffirmed as negative eurozone news has somewhat hit the backburner in the last three days and China straight-out denying it will pull investment out of European Government bonds.
But with the FTSE gaining over five per cent and re-establishing a points tally comfortably above the 5,000 mark, investors have started to be a little more selective about where they’re putting their money in the opening hours of trading.
The travel sector saw positive gains shortly after the market opened with TUI Travel, the parent group of First Choice and Thomson Holidays, topping the growth charts on the FTSE 100.
Both TUI and travel group competitor Thomas Cook gained over three per cent after Nomura upped both ratings to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’.
TUI Travel gained just shy of 10p or four per cent as it hit a high share price of 248p and Thomas Cook gained as much as 3.4 per cent to grow to 212.90p before 09:20BST.
The mining and banking sectors both continued growth from the previous two sessions.
Eurasian Natural Resources (LON:ENRC) and Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) were the standout stocks in each sector in early play with comfortable gains of over two per cent.
Two highlighted improvers for yesterday had a change in fortunes today with insurance giants Prudential (LON:PRU) and under-fire oil firm BP (LON:BP) both losing ground on the gains made in the last session.
Prudential shares dropped 2.8 per cent with a loss of 15p as the group confirming it was entering talks with UK Government owned bank AIG over the acquisition of its Asian arm, AIA, despite many shareholders voicing concerns over the deal.
And BP lost ground following reports that the oil giant had spent $930m on attempts to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which has official become the worst oil spill in US history.
Experts believe BP could be hit with losses of up to $10bn after the oil clean-up and paying out legal claims. The losses pushed the shares down by as much as 3.2 per cent this morning.
The ‘top kill’ operation to plug the leak with cement and mud appears to be having a positive results on the leak, and BP has said it will continue the operation for another 24 to 48 hours.
At 09:35BST the FTSE 100 is up 0.42 per cent at 5217.30 at 09:30BST.
Latest News
- FTSE drops as Greek concerns escalate
24 May 2012 - FTSE climbs as EU summit approaches
22 May 2012 - FTSE climbs as markets calm
22 May 2012
Related News
FTSE 100 Latest
| Value | Change |
| 5,266.41 | 136.87  |
Create a Watch List 
Track your favourite stocks
Create & monitor portfolios
Daily portfolio value
News
- FTSE drops as Greek concerns escalate
24 May 2012 - FTSE climbs as EU summit approaches
22 May 2012 - FTSE climbs as markets calm
22 May 2012 - FTSE falls further as ratings agency action worsens fears
20 May 2012 - FTSE plummets further as Greece dominates markets
17 May 2012 - Greek crisis continues to pressure markets
16 May 2012 - FTSE plunges further as Greece heads for the polls...again
15 May 2012 - FTSE nosedives over Greece concerns
15 May 2012 - Late surge for FTSE to finish in the blue
14 May 2012 - FTSE breaks losing streak; aid reached Greece
10 May 2012
