European airlines keep FTSE in flight

Surprisingly, it was airline stocks which helped to keep the FTSE 100 buoyant today after Ryanair announced its second quarter earnings rose by 43% and BA said it would not be hit as much as initially anticipated by the Sept 11 attacks. The FTSE 100 rose 79.6 points or 1.6% t 5209.o1 and the FTSE All-Share similarly rose 1.5% to 2488.05 after Ryanair Holdings saw its price rise 78p or 12% to 706p. The low-cost airline said will be able to maintain successful second quarter earnings and sales through the third quarter because its expanding service and fare-slicing has proved attractiv...