Shares in travel firms fail to take off despite updated green list

Holidaymakers flooded travel firms and airlines in a bid to book holidays to the 16 new destinations added to the Government’s green list on Friday.

But the same could not be said for investors, who gave the announcement a decidedly frosty response with shares in those companies failing to take off.

Shares in British Airways owner IAG closed down 4.7p, or 2.45%, at 187.48p; EasyJet down 14.4p at 955p, Ryanair down 0.22 cents at 16.4 euros, TUI down 4.6p at 405.6p, and Wizz Air down 60p at 5,018p.

Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: “The addition of Malta, Madeira and the Balearics to the green list, as well as an indication that the Government would look at dropping quarantine rules for fully vaccinated UK residents returning home from amber list countries later in the summer hasn’t had a positive impact on the travel sector today.

“The Government has once again been criticised for its cautious approach to the easing of restrictions as far as overseas travel is concerned, particularly in comparison to the EU, which is opening up faster, as concerns rise that the sands of time appear to be running out on the 2021 holiday season.”

The limp response from travel operators was in contrast to a reasonable performance from the FTSE 100 leading index, which closed the day up 26.1 points, or 0.37%, at 7136.07.

Reversing much of the losses from a week earlier, the FTSE also outperformed its German and French counterparts, where the Dax closed up just 0.12% and the Cac was down 0.12%.

The pound was down 0.12% against the dollar at 1.39 and flat against the euro at 1.164 as equity markets closed.

In company news, Tesco held its annual shareholder meeting on Friday morning and managed to avoid a repeat of the scenes a year earlier when investors voted against the remuneration report.

Just 8.2% voted against the pay package for executives. Shares closed up 1.15p at 224.5p.

Ocado said it has settled a legal spat with its co-founder and a former employee after they secured confidential documents from the online retail firm while they set up a competitor.

It said Jonathan Faiman and Jon Hillary have “made a significant payment” to the Ocado Group as part of the settlement. Shares closed up 2.5p at 1,985p.

The company behind Amigo Loans announced it has been given an extra three-month lifeline from its lender as the business tries to stave off collapse.

The guarantor lender said that its bank had extended the grace period it had given Amigo to September 24. The waiver was set to run out on Friday. Shares closed up 0.66p – or 7.6% – at 9.4p.

And investors in MoneySupermarket shrugged off concerns after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into a tie-up between its subsidiary TravelSupermarket and Icelolly to see if the deal might reduce competition in the UK.

Shares closed up 2p at 261.6p.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were JD Sports, up 40p at 952.6p; WPP, up 22.9p at 1,002.5p; BHP, up 45p at 2,160p; CRH, up 78p at 3,766p; and Ashtead Group, up 110p at 3,766p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Flutter Entertainment, down 615p at 13,755p; M&G, down 6.8p at 243.3p; Entain, down 48p at 1,800p; IAG, down 4.7p at 187.48p; and Vodafone, down 2.3p at 123p.