TUI Group Coca Cola Hellenic shares lead low bouncing FTSE

The top FTSE 100 performers were dominated by shares recovering from the battering they received earlier in the summer as the index rebounded from concerns over China’s economy.

However for these shares and the top-tier stock market as a whole, Thursday’s trading looked more like a bounce than a sustained rebound.

The FTSE was touching a 1% gain at its highest, but was trading 0.7% higher at online time.

During one of the slowest summer weeks, our view remains that the benchmark is still consolidating its own recovery from the headwinds seen several weeks ago.

Shares of TUI Group, the Germany-based packaged holiday provider, vied with those of Switzerland-headquartered Greece-focused Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, for the top spot on London’s benchmark.

Each share rose as much as 8%-9%, Coca Cola HBC’s leaping their most ever in one day on the back of the bottling firm’s H1 net profits that beat consensus by 15%.

CCHBC was also helped by an easing of tensions between Greece and the rest of the Eurozone, epitomized by the new bailout agreement announced this week, that could enable the debt-stricken country to honour a major bond repayment due in days.

It’s always worth noting that CCHBC investor interest in the UK—both among individuals and institutions—is limited.

Major European banks and funds make up the bulk of its shareholder register.

TUI shares were also probably buttressed by Greece’s avoidance of the Eurozone’s worst fears, but its shares were also being fuelled by its unexpectedly confident affirmation of full-year profit forecasts.

The world’s largest leisure tourism and group said strong demand for summer holidays was offsetting the impact of the Tunisian beach terror attacks in June at which 38 people, mostly British TUI customers, were murdered.

It said it expected annual profits to come in at the upper end of a targeted range for underlying core earnings (EBITA).

EBITA was now expected to rise by between 12.5% and 15% in the current financial year, against a previous forecast for between 10% and 15%.

In reaction its stock leapt to resolve the gap that had opened on the 26th June, date of the Tunisia attack, and the height of the latest episode in Greece’s saga.

TUI also broke through the crucial 61.8% interval projected off the second attempt by the shares to bounce after a first failed at the end of July.

The stock’s Thursday lows sat on top of a recent resistance line that will in all probability provide support in the event that the rise fades, as the line coincides with TUI’s 50-day moving average and Fibonacci level mentioned earlier.

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