Lift-off for IAG after BA secures pilot pay deal
BRITISH Airways-owner International Airlines Group (IAG) was in favour as investors welcomed a pay deal with its pilots’ union.
Traders – as well as passengers – will be hoping the pact with Balpa heads off the risks of strikes at Christmas.
The disagreement over pilots’ pay led to the first strikes in BA’s history in September, which saw 2,325 flights cancelled and cost IAG around £121m.
Balpa has recommended a deal worth 12pc over three years to its members, and the deal also agrees to improve working conditions and rostering.
Members of the union still need to vote it through, but the City seems optimistic, with shares in IAG rising 1.9pc, or 10.6p, to 565.8p on the first day of trading since it clinched the agreement after the market closed on Friday. Shopping centre-owner Intu
Properties fell 1.4pc, or 0.55p, to 38.15p after it flogged Northern Irish retail park Sprucefield to New River Real Estate Investment Trust for £40m. Intu has sold £268m worth of sites so far this year. Blue-chip fashion house Burberry rallied 2.7pc, up 55p, to 2088p, after Louis Vuitton-owner LVMH snapped up luxury US jeweller Tiffany for £12.5bn. The luxury sector has stumbled recently as shoppers have reined in their spending across the world, especially in the crucial Chinese market. Ecuador-focused copper miner
Solgold surged 10.6pc, or 2.07p, to 21.65p after Footsie’s heavyweight mining business BHP paid £17m to raise its holding in the company from 11pc to 14.7pc, making it the largest shareholder.
BHP (up 0.6pc, or 10p, to 1720.2p) bought 77m shares at 22.15p – 13pc higher than the price of Solgold’s stock before the deal.
It is another sign that big miners are keen to buy into copper projects as demand for electric cars soars. Elsewhere, fertiliser miner
Emmerson jumped 4.2pc, or 0.15p, to 3.7p, after it said its project in Morocco could be much cheaper to build than previously thought.
But it was a less-than-rosy start to the week for London’s major gold miners, however, as prices of the yellow metal edged lower.
Gold, which is a so-called safe haven that investors flock to when markets are choppy, fell around 1pc to $1,464.40 as hopes rose that the US and China are close to inking a first-stage trade deal.
Footsie-listed Fresnillo tumbled 3.8pc, or 21.4p, to 539.6p, while blue-chip rival Polymetal fell 0.5pc, or 6p, to 1151.5p and midcap group Centamin shed 2.4pc, or 2.7p, to 109.2p. FTSE 250-listed Hochschild Mining, which last week warned production will fall by 5pc next year, dived 5.7pc, or 9.7p, to 160.4p, as it was hit with a double-whammy of sliding gold prices and a downgrade from ‘neutral’ to ‘underperform’ from analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The renewed optimism about US-China trade helped send the
FTSE 100 1pc, or 69.48 points, higher to 7396.29, while the
FTSE 250 also jumped by 1pc, or 217.36 points, to 20703.17.
Across the pond, Wall Street indexes were also buoyed by the news with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both hitting all-time highs.
President Trump took to Twitter, naturally, to say: ‘Another new Stock Market Record. Enjoy!’
Mid-cap insurer Direct Line was boosted (up 2.8pc, or 8.4p, to 303.8p) by an upgrade from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ from Deutsche Bank brokers after it launched a cost-cutting plan last week.
Business and financial information company Euromoney Institutional Investor slid 1.7pc, or 22p, to 1256p after it spent £16m on data group Wealth-X, which provides intelligence on the world’s richest people.