TUI Travel, Card Factory and Hastings

“The FTSE100 opened lower, weighed down by a string of ex-dividend issues, and following falls on Wall Street overnight,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

Travel giant TUI’s fleet-footed response to terror concerns has found favour with investors propelling the group to the top of the blue-chip board in early trading. TUI has shifted its focus from the east to west Mediterranean in the wake of falling demand for holidays in Turkey after a spate of terror attacks and the failed coup. TUI sales growth forecasts have been lowered to 2-3% from 5% but underlying earnings are still expected to be up at least 10% because the shift in destinations is pushing up prices.

Card Factory’s shares slumped after growth stuttered in the first half. Like-for-like sales were up 0.2% compared with 2.8% a year ago. Growth was driven by online sales while the performance for the store network was broadly flat with footfall patterns generally soft.

General insurance group Hastings is on track to meet, or beat, all its targets after maintaining its momentum in the first half. The group continues to increase its market share with live customer policies up by 17%.

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