Airline shares boosted by Omicron optimism

Travel shares will be in focus again today after sharp rises in airline stocks yesterday. Shares in Wizz Air gained 12 per cent, IAG 11 per cent and easyJet 9 per cent by the close of play in London on Tuesday as investors bet that Omicron would have a less severe impact on the industry than feared.

Shares in the sector have been particularly susceptible to disruption. But a sharp rally since mid-December has lifted IAG and easyJet 25 per cent, travel correspondent Philip Georgiadis reports.

This morning Ryanair reported December traffic figures, a day after low-cost rival Wizz reported its data. Ryanair flew planes that were on average 81 per cent full in December, slightly lower than in October and November but in line with the July to September period. It flew 9.5m passengers in the month. To underline the extent of the recovery so far: in December 2020, it flew just 1.9m.

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Briefly

Rishi Sunak has bad news for consumers hit by high energy prices. The chancellor warned colleagues there was a limit to potential government support to offset the price rises, with support to be targeted at the UK households most in need. Our politics and energy team have more details on the options being considered here.

Investors in gambling software group Playtech face another four-week wait as rival bidders circle the company. Playtech pushed back a meeting to vote on a 680p-a-share cash offer from Australian gaming group Aristocrat Leisure while it discusses a potential rival deal with JKO Play, a company controlled by former F1 boss Eddie Jordan. The shareholder meeting was due to be held next week, but has been rescheduled to February 2. JKO originally faced a “put up or shut up” Takeover Panel deadline to declare its intentions of 5pm today, but Playtech and JKO have asked the Panel for an extension.

The boss of the company behind discount retailer Poundland is to stand down for health reasons. Pepco Group, which listed on the Warsaw stock exchange in May last year, said chief executive Andy Bond plans to leave his role at the end of March. He will remain as an adviser to the board until the end of the company’s financial year.

Beyond the Square Mile

Tencent’s move to sell more than $3bn of its shares in Sea, the New York-listed Singaporean gaming and ecommerce group, wiped more than 11 per cent off Sea’s shares on Tuesday. Tencent’s equity stake will fall from 21.3 per cent to 18.7 per cent after the sale, Primrose Riordan reports from Hong Kong. The sale comes less than a month after Tencent sold down its stake in Chinese ecommerce business JD.com.

Sony is launching a new company to “explore” entering the electric vehicle market. Shares in the Japanese group climbed 4.5 per cent after announcing the plans to open the subsidiary and unveiling an electric SUV prototype.

Shares in bad debt manager China Huarong Asset Management fell more than 40 per cent after resuming trading following a nine month suspension, William Langley reports from Hong Kong. The company suspended trading in March after delaying the release of its results, and disclosed record losses of $16bn in August before a state-backed bailout of $6.6bn was unveiled in November.

Brooke Masters tackles the Theranos verdict in her column. “‘Fake it until you make it’ may work in Silicon Valley, but that slogan doesn’t fly in federal court,” she writes. “Holmes’ conviction is a timely warning that there is a crucial difference between rosy optimism and outright fraud.” Read the full column here.