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Britain's FTSE rebounds on appetite for Ashtead, travel stocks

Reuters - UK Focus

* FTSE 100 bounces back slightly from slump on Tuesday

* Ashtead touches all-time high after it lifts forecasts

* Carnival (LSE: CCL.L - news) boosted by Numis price target upgrade

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 10 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rebounded from one-month lows on Wednesday, boosted by appetite for travel and leisure stocks and by industrial equipment hire company Ashtead after it raised its earning guidance.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.3 percent at 6,547.59 points by the middle of the trading session, partially recouping a 2.1 percent slide in the previous session which took the index to its lowest level since Nov. 6.

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Ashtead rose 8.1 percent, having at one point surged more than 10 percent to an all-time high, after it raised its full-year earnings guidance following an increase in profits.

Ashtead was the best-performing FTSE 100 stock in percentage terms, while travel stocks also outperformed.

Cruise operator Carnival rose by around 3 percent after Numis lifted its target price on the stock.

British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group and easyJet both advanced about 2 percent as airlines benefited again from downward pressure on oil prices. Brent crude oil was near five year lows and down 40 percent since June on oversupply worries.

The FTSE hit a peak of 6,904.86 points at the start of September, its highest level since early 2000, but then slumped to 15-month lows in October as weak European economic data knocked back stock markets.

Beaufort Securities sales trader Basil Petrides said he would hold off from buying the FTSE at present, given renewed economic uncertainty caused by the slump in the oil price and renewed political uncertainty in Greece.

"We had been going up since mid-October but we've now started to flatline. I wouldn't buy it here. I'm going to pause and wait to see how things pan out," said Petrides. (additional reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Gareth Jones)