FTSE 100 movers: Travel companies fly higher as miners sink

Travel tour operator TUI Travel saw its shares rise, as the company met expectations with a 4% rise in annual profits as the company painted a positive outlook for the winter and upcoming summer season ahead of its planned merger with parent group TUI AG.

Budget airline Easyjet also flew high after saying that passenger numbers increased by 3.1% to 4,386,296 in November, against the same month in 2013. The load factor - a measure of how full its aircraft were - increased by 0.5 percentage points to 89.5%.

Sage's shares were extending gains after the accountancy software group impressed the market with its annual results on Wednesday. The stock was given a further boost by target price upgrades from both Citigroup and Credit Suisse.

Anglo American dropped after analysts at Bank of America downgraded the company from a ‘buy’ rating to an ‘underperform’ rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday.

A reduction in risk appetite hit other miners too, with Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton both trading lower.

Risers
Sage Group (SGE) 449.80p +6.56%
TUI Travel (TT.) 446.00p +4.04%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,672.00p +2.39%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,573.00p +2.14%
Royal Mail (RMG) 405.90p +1.98%
IMI (IMI) 1,177.00p +1.82%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,722.00p +1.72%
CRH (CRH) 1,560.00p +1.63%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,692.00p +1.44%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,083.00p +1.31%

Fallers
Anglo American (AAL) 1,284.50p -2.69%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,975.00p -2.52%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 235.60p -2.04%
BP (BP.) 428.50p -1.91%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 413.10p -1.90%
BG Group (BG.) 921.00p -1.64%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,964.50p -1.54%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,265.00p -1.48%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,498.00p -1.35%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,470.00p -1.31%