Australia's Flight Centre second-biggest gainer in ASX 200 after outlook hike

Flight Centre Travel

20/07/2023 05:48

July 20 (Reuters) - Australia's Flight Centre  FLT.AX 
jumped more than 5% on Thursday to mark its biggest intraday
percentage gain since February 1 after the travel retailer hiked
its annual underlying operating earnings forecast, citing strong
performance.
    Flight Centre shares were trading 4.9% higher at A$21.82, as
at 0354 GMT, its highest level since mid-June, and was the
second-biggest gainer in the ASX 200 benchmark index  .AXJO .
Shares are on track to log their ninth straight day in positive
territory.
    Earlier in the day, shares soared as much as 5.1% to touch
an over two-month high of A$21.88. 
    Over 2.1 million shares have traded, more than double the
30-day average.
    The corporate travel manager expects to log underlying
earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
(EBITDA) between A$295 million ($201.5 million) and A$305
million for the year ending June 30.
    That is higher than its previous forecast of A$270 million
to A$290 million, and a strong turnaround from last year's loss
of A$183.1 million.
    "FLT's global corporate travel business has continued to
outperform, delivering record TTV (total transaction value)
during FY23 in a market that has generally improved but has yet
to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels," the company said.
    The TTV is expected to be in the order of A$22 billion for
fiscal 2023, more than double of last year, it added.
    

($1 = 1.4641 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia
Cheema)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))