An ultra positive pre-close trading statement from holidays and flights group Tui Travel led to rises across the board in the sector.

Thomas Cook Group led gains, rising 2.6 per cent to 262.5 pence while Tui benefitted from its announcement that its Winter 2009/2010 programmes almost sold out and that it expected to meet expectations for 2010.

Paul Bowtell, chief financial officer of Tui Travel, said the company had witnessed significant recovery in consumer demand for leisure holidays, resulting in strong trading across all open seasons.

He explained, ‘The strong trends reported in our previous trading statement on 9 February have continued and we remain pleased with our trading performance across all open seasons.

‘Booking volumes are currently ahead or in line with capacity reductions in all source markets. We have very few holidays left to sell for the winter season, which runs until the end of April in most source markets.’

Tui Travel was trading up 1.7 per cent at 309.3 pence.

Other winners included Anglo American that saw a rise of 1.1 per cent to 2,747 pence after JP Morgan upgraded its rating, noting stronger-than-anticipated prospects for the sector.

Top ten trades
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Source: The Share Centre

Buy
1. Lloyds Banking Group, 5 per cent
2. Royal Bank of Scotland, 3 per cent
3. Desire Petroleum, 3 per cent
4. Healthcare Locums, 2 per cent
5. BP, 2 per cent
6. Vodafone, 1 per cent
7. GlaxoSmithKline, 1 per cent
8. Rockhopper Exploration, 1 per cent
9. Nighthawk Energy, 1 per cent
10. Barclays, 1 per cent

Sell
1. Lloyds Banking Group, 3 per cent
2. Barclays, 3 per cent
3. BAE Systems, 2 per cent
4. Share, 2 per cent
5. Cairn Energy, 2 per cent
6. Chariot Oil & Gas, 1 per cent
7. Healthcare Locums, 1 per cent
8. Rio Tinto, 1 per cent
9. BP, 1 per cent
10. Aviva, 1 per cent