Tui well positioned, Mediclinic growing patiently

London open

The FTSE 100 is forecast to reverse by around 22 points on Thursday morning, cutting some of the 97 points gained from the previous day.

Stocks to watch

Tui has sold 47% of its summer holiday programme, in line with last year, and at 1% higher average selling prices, lifting revenue 3% as holidaymakers were channelled increasingly to Spain as Turkey's troubles prove offputting. Ahead of interim results in May, Anglo-German travel group behind the Thomson and First Choice brands said it remained "well positioned" to deliver underlying EBITA growth of at least 10% in the year to September.

Newly promoted to the FTSE 100, private healthcare group Mediclinic International reported continued patient growth across all of its operating platforms in the 11 months to the end of February, with an associated rise in revenues. In the pre-close trading update, the company reported revenues of ZAR 12.26bn (£0.57bn) in South Africa, 1.49bn francs (£1.08bn) in Switzerland and 1.4bn dirham (£0.27bn) in the United Arab Emirates - which were all increases on the previous period.

AO World has raised its guidance for the full year after its UK business performed strongly during the fourth quarter with and continued to gain market share. As a result, management said they expected full year UK revenue growth to be roughly 18.5% with revenue growth from AO.com to be circa 27% and UK adjusted EBITDA to be circa £17m.

Newspaper round-up

Tata’s board met for seven hours on Tuesday in the company’s elegant stone headquarters in central Mumbai but one insider said it was clear what the company had to do. “It was very straightforward, not dramatic,” he said, as Tata signalled that, after nine years, several billion pounds of investment and continuing heavy losses, it was putting its British steel operations up for sale. – Financial Times

China’s biggest listed steelmaker has said it expects to increase output by 20% in 2016, underlining the problems facing the British steel industry amid a global glut of supply. Even as China steps up efforts to slash its bloated steel making capacity amid a rise in anti-dumping complaints, Baosteel said it produced 22.6m tonnes of crude steel in 2015 and is likely to produce 27.1m tonnes this year. – Guardian

The failure of HSBC to clean up its act after an anti-money-laundering deal with America’s justice department has raised the possibility that US authorities may continue to monitor Britain’s biggest bank. HSBC revealed in its annual report last month that Michael Cherkasky, the independent monitor appointed by regulators in the United States to oversee HSBC’s clean-up, had expressed “significant concerns” about “instances of financial crime”. – The Times

The former boss of one of Britain’s biggest energy suppliers has warned that the safety buffer separating Britain from power cuts will be uncomfortably slim for up to four years. Experts had already warned this winter that Britain was at its highest risk of blackouts in more than a decade before the announcement of a succession of closures of coal-fired power stations. – The Times

US close

US stocks closed up on Wednesday as a dovish speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen the previous day continued to underpin sentiment, although indices were off the day's highs as oil prices slipped back.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq both ended up 0.4% while the S&P 500 rose 0.4%.

Oil prices, meanwhile, settled pretty flat following a strong performance earlier in the day, after data from the Energy Information Administration showed US crude stockpiles rose 2.3m barrels last week to 534.8m barrels, which was at all-time highs.