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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Wednesday on a quiet day of corporate and economic news, while Wizz Air fell to the bottom of the FTSE 250 after it swung to an annual loss.
The FTSE 100 index was up 39.26 points, or 0.6%, at 7,120.08. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 76.06 points, or 0.3%, at 22,952.81. The AIM All-Share index was flat at 1,258.40.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.5% at 709.70. The Cboe 250 was up 0.2% at 20,671.76, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.1% at 15,175.25.
In Paris the CAC 40 was up 0.4%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.3%.
In the FTSE 250, Tullow Oil was the best performer, up 2.6%. The oil and gas company said Chair Dorothy Thompson has decided to stand down, having assumed the role in September 2018. A search process to find a replacement has been launched and is expected to conclude towards the end of the summer, the company said.
Tate & Lyle was up 2.1% after Berenberg upgraded the food ingredients maker to Buy from Hold.
At the other end of the mid-caps, Greencore Group was the worst performer, down 2.7%, after the sandwich maker was downgraded to Hold from Buy by Jefferies.
Wizz Air was down 1.5% after the budget carrier swung to an annual loss as lockdown restrictions curtailed operations.
For the financial year ended March 31, Wizz Air swung to a pretax loss of EUR566.5 million from a profit of EUR294.1 million the year before on revenue of EUR739.0 million, down 73% from EUR2.76 billion. Ancillary revenue fell by 67% to EUR412.6 million, representing 56% of total revenue.
The Budapest-based budget airline said that in financial 2021 passengers carried fell 75% to 10.2 million from 40.0 million the year prior. It had a 64.0% load factor, down from 93.6% in financial 2020. More recently, in May, Wizz Air carried 832,538 passengers with a 66.1% load factor.
Looking ahead, Wizz Air Chief Executive Officer Jozsef Varadi said he expects the carrier to fly around 30% of capacity in the first quarter of financial 2022.
Further, Varadi said that unless there is an "accelerated and permanent lifting of restrictions", he expects a reported net loss during 2022. For 2023, Varadi sees a strong trading environment and plans to operate at full capacity as the pandemic subsides.
Mid-cap peer easyJet was down 0.4% and AIM-listed Jet2 was 0.1% lower.
Larger budget competitor Ryanair reported some of its first good news on passenger traffic since the pandemic began, with an increase in passenger traffic in May from April and a year before. Ryanair shares were down 0.3%.
Elsewhere in London, Bloomsbury Publishing was up 5.0% after the publishing house said it delivered record results and hailed the popularity of reading as a "ray of sunshine" during a "very dark year" brought about by the pandemic.
For the financial year ended February 28, pretax profit was up 31% to GBP17.3 million from GBP13.2 million the year before on revenue of GBP185.1 million, up 14% from GBP162.8 million.
Bloomsbury declared a total dividend of 8.86 pence per share, an 8% increase on the 8.17p the year before. It also proposed a special dividend of 9.78p.
CEO Nigel Newton sad: "Considering the ongoing momentum and strength of our business, Bloomsbury expects revenue to be ahead and profit to be comfortably ahead of market expectations" in the new financial year.
The publisher put those financial 2022 expectations at profit before tax and highlighted items of GBP17.4 million, which compares to GBP19.2 million in financial 2021, on revenue of GBP177.5 million.
88 Energy was down 2.3%.
US President Joe Biden's administration announced Tuesday it was halting petroleum development activity in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a move by former president Donald Trump to allow drilling.
88 Energy has four projects in the North Slope of Alaska with a combined acreage of around 440,000 net acres.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.5%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 0.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.5%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 1.0%.
The dollar was higher against major counterparts. The pound was quoted at USD1.4142 early Wednesday, down from USD1.4178 at the London equities close Tuesday.
The euro was priced at USD1.2211, lower from USD1.2248. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY109.71, up from JPY109.40.
Brent oil was quoted at USD70.77 a barrel Wednesday morning, down from USD71.11 late Tuesday. Gold was trading at USD1,896.18 an ounce, marginally lower against USD1,899.75.
The economic calendar on Wednesday has EU producer prices at 1000 BST.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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