FTSE 100 movers: Travel stocks rally on vaccine hopes; Burberry slides
London’s FTSE 100 was up 1.7% at 6,281.74 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
British Airways and Iberia parent IAG was the standout gainer amid speculation that positive news on initial trials of the University of Oxford’s potential vaccine, licensed to AstraZeneca, will be announced this week.
Travel-related stocks in general got a boost, with Premier Inn owner Whitbread and InterContinental Hotels also higher.
Online grocer Ocado was in the black for the second day running after reporting reported a rise in half-year revenue on Tuesday, as Britons turned to home deliveries during the coronavirus lockdown with expectations that this trend would continue.
On the downside, Burberry was under the cosh after the luxury fashion brand said it expected first-half revenue to fall by up to 50% and would restructure further as the coronavirus pandemic continued to have a material impact on sales.
The company said first-quarter comparable sales plunged 45% to £257m with stores closed during global lockdowns, although the rate eased to -20% in June with growth in mainline China and Korea ahead of pre-Covid levels.
Burberry expects a decline of 15-20% in second-quarter retail revenues, with wholesale revenues down 40-50%. The company said it was in consultation over 150 UK head office jobs and was hoping to redeploy some affected staff to reduce the number of potential redundancies.
A company spokesman told Sharecast there would also be changes outside the UK. In total, the proposed changes would impact roughly 5% of jobs globally, or 500 out of 10,000 staff.
FTSE 100 - Risers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 227.20p 9.71%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,182.50p 7.35%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 2,110.00p 6.11%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,378.00p 5.88%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 3,984.00p 5.56%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 652.20p 5.33%
3i Group (III) 875.40p 5.32%
Next (NXT) 4,980.00p 5.11%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 271.10p 5.00%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 909.40p 4.77%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,453.50p -6.68%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 183.15p -1.90%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,422.00p -1.42%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 195.35p -1.39%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 549.60p -1.08%
National Grid (NG.) 870.60p -0.96%
British Land Company (BLND) 374.50p -0.79%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 865.40p -0.76%
BT Group (BT.A) 114.75p -0.74%
Pearson (PSON) 550.80p -0.43%