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(Alliance News) - Ryanair on Friday reported a rebound in passenger traffic, as travel restrictions were eased last month.
The Dublin-based budget airline said it flew 5.3 million passengers in June, up sharply from 1.8 million in May, 1.0 million in April, and just 400,000 in June 2020. Ryanair operated over 38,000 flights in June with a 72% load factor.
Last month, Ryanair added seats to destinations such as Malta and the Balearic Islands following their addition to the UK's travel green list, but urged the government to relax travel rules further.
Ryanair criticised the current traffic light system as being "very confusing" for airlines and customers.
Ryanair shares were up 0.6% early Friday.
Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 1.6% at 7,147.09
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Hang Seng: down 1.9% at 28,268.24
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.3% at 28,783.28
DJIA: closed up 131.02 points, or 0.4%, at 34,633.53
S&P 500: closed up 0.5% at 4,319.94
Nasdaq Composite: closed 0.1% at 14,522.38
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EUR: down at USD1.1840 (USD1.1851)
GBP: down at USD1.3758 (USD1.3775)
USD: flat at JPY111.60 (JPY111.59)
Gold: up at USD1,777.70 per ounce (USD1,769.16)
Oil (Brent): firm at USD75.67 a barrel (USD75.52)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's Key Economic Events still to come
ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks at Aix-en-Provence Economic Forum
0930 CEST EU euroCOIN indicator of euro area economic activity
1100 CEST EU producer price index
0830 EDT US international trade in goods & services
0830 EDT US jobs report for June
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India became the third country to pass 400,000 Covid-19 deaths, official data showed, as the country's vast vaccination drive slows. Total deaths are 400,312, according to the health ministry – behind only the US and Brazil – with total cases almost 30.5 million. Many experts suspect India's true death toll is more than a million, after a devastating spike in cases in April and May that overwhelmed hospitals. The surge was blamed on the Delta variant and government complacency after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared victory over the virus in January. Daily case numbers have since decreased significantly and many restrictions on activity have been lifted, raising fears of a new spike in coming months.
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All US and NATO troops have left the biggest air base in Afghanistan, a US defence official told AFP on Friday, signalling the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from the country after two decades of war was imminent. Bagram Air Base served as the linchpin for US operations in the rugged country, where the long war against the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies was fought with air strikes and resupply missions from the airfield. He did not say when it will be officially handed over to Afghan forces.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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LIBERUM CUTS BHP GROUP TO 'SELL' (HOLD) - PRICE TARGET 1900 (2250) PENCE
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BERENBERG RAISES INFORMA TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 640 (610) PENCE
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BARCLAYS CUTS INFORMA PRICE TARGET TO 630 (660) PENCE - 'OVERWEIGHT'
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JEFFERIES RAISES BARRATT DEVELOPMENTS TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 876 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Chevron Australia and the Gorgon joint venture participants will proceed with the USD4 billion Jansz-Io compression project in Western Australia. The Chevron-operated Gorgon project is a joint venture between the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron, which hold 47% stake in the project, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, each having 25%, and the reminder held by Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and JERA. California-based Chevron said a modification of the existing Gorgon development will involve the construction and installation of a 27,000-tonne normally unattended floating field control station, 6,500 tonnes of subsea compression infrastructure and a 135 kilometres submarine power cable linked to Barrow Island. Construction and installation activities are estimated to take approximately five years to complete.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Echoing larger peer Ryanair, Wizz Air said passenger numbers rebounded to 1.6 million in June, triple what the Eastern Europe-focused airline carried a year before. Its June load factor was 64%, up from 52% a year ago. Last month, the budget carrier opened its sixth Italian base, in Naples.
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QinetiQ said Chief Financial Officer David Smith will retire on November 30. Smith will be succeeded by Carol Borg on December 1, the defence technology company said. Borg is currently the CFO of global solar developer Lightsource bp, a position she has held since 2017. "Carol's proven financial and operational expertise in driving disciplined strategy execution, including organic growth and acquisitions, makes her a great complement to our team. I am absolutely delighted to welcome Carol to the QinetiQ family as we embark on our next five years of global growth," said Chief Executive Officer Steve Wadey.
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Grafton Group said it has completed the acquisition of Isojoen Konehalli Oy & Jokapaikka. Last month, the Irish building products firm struck a deal to acquire the Finland-based PPE wholesaler for EUR199.3 million.
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COMPANIES - MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Online-only building materials retailer CMO Group said it is planning to float on London's junior AIM market on Thursday next week. CMO Group is to raise GBP45 million from a placing by Liberum Capital of 34.1 million new and existing shares at an IPO price of 132 pence. Based on the placing price, the market capitalisation of the company will be around GBP95 million on admission. CMO will have 72 million shares in issue and a free float of 46% per cent. Key Capital Partners will retain 27% stake in CMO Group, while founders and management will own 17%. "CMO has an exciting opportunity ahead as we continue to capitalise on our first mover advantage and digital platform to further increase market share as customers increasingly move online for their building materials requirements. We are particularly encouraged by the strong demand we have experienced from high calibre institutional investors which is clear validation of CMO's market opportunity and strong future growth potential," said CEO Dean Murray.
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COMPANIES - GLOBAL
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Johnson & Johnson said new data has shown its single-shot Covid vaccine generates a "strong, persistent activity" against the India, or Delta, variant. "Today's newly announced studies reinforce the ability of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine to help protect the health of people globally," said Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at J&J. "We believe that our vaccine offers durable protection against Covid-19 and elicits neutralising activity against the Delta variant. This adds to the robust body of clinical data supporting our single-shot vaccine's ability to protect against multiple variants of concern." The data showed that the J&J single-shot Covid-19 vaccine elicited "neutralising antibody activity" against the Delta variant at an even higher level than what was recently observed for the Beta variant in South Africa where high efficacy against severe and critical disease was demonstrated, J&J explained.
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Friday's Shareholder Meetings
JLEN Environmental Assets Group Ltd - AGM
Mining Minerals & Metals PLC - AGM
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com
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