MARKET REPORT: Tui shares fly higher as 500,000 jet off for Easter

Shares in Tui, the world’s largest travel company, were in demand as it monetized leisure travel and looked ahead to a busy summer.

With families looking for some sun, the FTSE 250 company said more than 500,000 customers booked a Tui holiday over Easter.

The Mediterranean and the Canary Islands were among the most sought after destinations. Holidaymakers are also attracted to Turkey, the Balearic Islands, Spain, Egypt and Greece.

The package tour company said seat occupancy, a metric used by airlines to measure how many seats are occupied on an airplane, should be around 95 percent for that period.

This would be about the level seen before the pandemic hit.

Tui said the latest trade figures show that “customers are unwilling to give up holidays” despite economic challenges. It expects summer travel to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Sebastian Ebel, chief executive at Tui, said: “Booking momentum remains encouraging, and travel trends and strong Easter demand are a healthy signal for the summer ahead.” Tui shares rose 12 percent, or 66.8 pence, to 624 pence.

The FTSE 100 was up 1% or 78.62 points to 7741.56 and the FTSE 250 was up 1.1% or 195.61 points to 18,797.03.

Ferrexpo rose 5.9 pence, or 6.5 pence, to 117.1 pence after business improved despite the war in Ukraine.

The miner, who works in Ukraine, said iron ore pellet production doubled to 901,000 tons in the first three months of this year compared to the last quarter of 2022.

This was due to an increased supply of electricity to the Ukrainian operations, which led to the group bringing its second pellet line back into production in February.

Peel Hunt said this was faster than expected and paved the way for Ferrexpo to increase exports.

Liberum’s Ben Davis said a “Ukraine spring offensive is likely to begin soon” as Russian forces lose momentum.

Robert Walters endured a rough day at the office when the recruiting firm warned of a “slower start” to the year as economic uncertainty weighed on hiring.

The company, named after the boss who founded the company in 1985, said employers around the world are more cautious about hiring permanent staff and have turned to temporary workers.

Net fee income rose 4 percent to £102.4 million in the first three months of this year.

Business improved across Europe, except in the UK, where revenues fell 9 percent to £16.3 million.

It said hiring was ‘muted’ in London and the regions, while tech recruitment in the UK took a hit from the ‘ongoing drip of layoffs’. Stocks, which fell as much as 7 percent during the day, fell 2.5 percent, or 11 percent, to 427 percent.

De La Rue was in the black again after the banknote printer appointed an interim financial boss. Charles Andrews starts Tuesday after Rob Harding stepped down in January to take on the same role at Paypoint.

It came a day after shares fell 5.8 percent, when activist investor Crystal Amber doubled down on calls for Kevin Loosemore to step down as chairman, saying the three-year turnaround plan has “failed on every count.” Shares rose 6.1 pCt, or 2.9p, to 50.4p.

Motorpoint’s boss said an 18 percent increase in new car registrations in March should benefit his company’s stock of used vehicles.

Mark Carpenter remained optimistic that the used car dealer would be well equipped to cope with higher interest rates and rising inflation as it reported record £1.44 billion in sales for the year to March 31. 134.75 pp.