Shell, BP, Dignity and TUI

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“Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and BP help drive the FTSE 100 higher on speculation that oil producing countries are considering further output cuts to support oil prices,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Producers’ cartel OPEC is due to meet in Vienna on 25 May. Shares in Shell trade 1.1% higher at £22.17 and BP is up by the same amount to 465.1p.

“Funeral services provider Dignity’s first quarter numbers look impressive on a year-on-year basis. Sales are up 15% to £93.3m supported by a 7% rise in the UK death rate. Even more impressively, sales are up 9% versus the first quarter of 2015 which saw an abnormally high number of deaths (5% more than in the first three months of 2017). Investors mark the shares 7.4% higher to £27.17 in response.

“Investors seem unconvinced that Thomson holidays owner TUI can meet its goal of growing underlying earnings by 10% this year, amid mounting losses in the six months to the end of March. Revenue grew by 8.2% to €6.38bn but it made a loss of €308.6m in the half year period. Its shares fall 4.8% to £11.33.”

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