FTSE 100 movers: Forecasts lift TUI while iron send miners plunging

The FTSE 100 was just above the waterline in afternoon trading on Monday, having retraced earlier gains as oil prices slipped back.

Two major players in the travel sector featured highly in the risers, with TUI surging ahead of its half-year results on Wednesday.

The tour operator - Europe’s biggest, and owner of the Thomson and First Choice brands - is expected to post increase traffic to Spanish and Canary Islands destinations, as well as to places further afield, such as Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica.

The company had previously indicated traffic to Turkey - which made up 14% of its summer market last year - had fallen by around 40% as a result of a recent spate of terror attacks and security concerns with Syria just across the border.

Chief executive Friedrich Joussen has recently reaffirmed that the group is in a position to meet its target of growing underlying earnings by 10% in the UK this year, however.

Low-cost carrier easyJet was also set to post its half-year results this week, rising on Monday afternoon.

While it is expected to swing to a loss as a result of terror attacks in Paris, Brussels and Sharm el-Sheikh, it was up on Monday after RBC Capital Markets upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘underperform’, and lifted the price target to 1,500p from 1,450p.

Analysis from Numis over the weekend estimated the France and Egypt attacks will have cost the airline £45m in lost revenues in its first quarter, with the Brussels attacks on March adding another £35m of pain to its books.

Artificial knee and hip maker Smith & Nephew was also on the up, after having its rating upgraded to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ at Jefferies, with the price target raised to 1,375p from 1,044p.

It said it now views the company as a medical device conglomerate, having diversified away from its previous focus on hips and knees.

“Many investors still view the company as a pure-play orthopaedic manufacturer, which is not appropriate, in our view,” Jefferies researchers said.

AstraZeneca was still reaping the benefits of having its ‘buy’ rating reaffirmed by Citigroup on Friday, with a 5,400p price target.

On Sunday, bosses at the firm joined those at competitor GlaxoSmithKline in signing a letter, published in the Observer, warning of the risks of Brexit for the life sciences sector.

The fallers were dominated by metals and oil, with Anglo America, Glencore, Rio Tinto, Antofagasta, Fresnillo and BHP Billiton being severely punished by a plunging iron ore price.

Prices have been in freefall after port stockpiles in China expanded to their highest levels in more than a year, after Beijing made moves to put a stop to recent speculation.

Ore at 62% was last down 5.7% to $57.99 per dry tonne, according to Metal Bulletin, with prices now down around 22% below their peak on 21 April.

Comex copper was also down, last slipping 1.97%.

Other companies making the list of top fallers were Royal Dutch Shell and BP, both losing out as crude prices came back down from their Asian euphoria on Monday.

Brent crude was last down 1.54% at $44.68 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate lost 0.9% to $44.26.

FTSE 100 - Risers

AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,937.00p 3.65%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,035.00p 3.50%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,914.00p 2.95%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,454.00p 2.68%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,165.00p 2.55%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 954.00p 2.47%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 9,100.00p 2.42%
Carnival (CCL) 3,528.00p 2.20%
Capita (CPI) 1,021.00p 2.10%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,083.00p 1.85%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Anglo American (AAL) 577.70p -11.04%
Glencore (GLEN) 134.00p -7.97%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 1,991.50p -6.66%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 416.20p -5.73%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,043.00p -5.44%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 802.00p -5.06%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,955.00p -3.41%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 488.90p -1.92%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,733.00p -1.62%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,717.00p -1.46%