Airline stocks rose after German carrier Lufthansa returned to profit.
The industry has gone through a torrid time during the pandemic after Covid restrictions crippled international travel.
But with lockdown measures a thing of the past and the feel-good factor slowly returning, airlines have appreciated customers taking to the skies again.
Wizz Air shares rose 4.9%, or 134p, to 2,865p, Easyjet added 4.2%, or 20.3p, to 505p and British Airways owner IAG rose 2.1%, or 3.18p, at 154.42p.
The gains came after Lufthansa, Europe’s second-biggest airline, said it was “back” as it returned to profit and revealed revenue had nearly doubled in 2022.
Flying the flag: The gains came after Lufthansa, Europe’s second-biggest airline, said it was ‘back’ as it returned to profits and revealed revenue nearly doubled in 2022
It said it carried 102 million passengers last year, up from 47 million a year earlier.
Elsewhere in the sector, aircraft leasing company Avation returned to profit.
The Singapore-based company, which owns planes such as the Airbus A320 which are used by Easyjet, made a profit of £5.6 million in the six months to December 31, after posting a loss of £13.2million a year earlier.
Last month, Avation announced plans to lease or sell its remaining idle aircraft by the end of June. There are only three non-lease aircraft left in its fleet.
Its share price rose 4.8%, or 6p, to 132p.
The FTSE 100 edged up – 0.04%, or 3.07 points, to 7947.11 – while the FTSE 250 rose 0.4%, or 74.12 points, to 19,925.77.
Mining stocks made strong gains on the back of higher copper and gold prices.
Antofagasta added 2.7%, or 43p, to 1664p, Rio Tinto rose 2.1%, or 126p, to 6144p, Glencore gained 2.4%, or 12p, to 523p and Anglo American rose 1 .8%, or 53.5p, to 3042.5p.
Motor insurer Admiral was down after Citigroup downgraded the share’s rating to “neutral” from “buy” and cut the target price to 2272p from 2423p. The shares fell 1.9%, or 40p, to 2111p.
Meanwhile, IMI posted an annual profit for the third consecutive year.
The engineer said profits rose 17% to £285million in 2022. Revenue rose 10% to £2.05billion.
Its dividend payout of 17.4p for 2022 will be 10% higher than the previous year. But shares fell 0.1%, or 1p, to 1,582p.
National Express added 2.6%, or 3.6p, to 141p after HSBC raised the bus and coach operator’s target price to 235p from 230p.
The broker also upgraded Aston Martin, raising the luxury carmaker’s target price to 194p from 160p. Its share price rose 9.8%, or 21.5p, to 240p.
But Hunting headed the other way. The energy services company fell 7.7%, or 23.5p, to 282p after Berenberg downgraded the stock from “hold” to “buy”.
Active Energy Group has obtained a trademark to register its Coalswitch biomass technology in Canada.
In response, shares of the renewable energy company soared 23.5%, or 1.22p, to 6.42p.
Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said: “The general mood was also helped by better than expected economic reports, which, while raising concerns about further rate hikes, also helped to create a mood that the economic situation may not be as dire as had been predicted at the start of the year.
Pennon gained 7.1%, or 57.5p, to 862.5p after Deutsche Bank raised the South West Water owner’s rating from “hold” to “sell”.
It sparked a rally in the sector as United Utilities, the North West England water supplier, rose 2.3%, or 23.1p, to 1,016.5p while Severn Trent rose down 2.3%, or 61p, to 2745p and SSE added 0.2%, or 3.5p, to 1731p.
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