Stock Watch

There has not been a great amount of movement in the stock market among the travel retail-related companies we track since the last column ten days ago (closing prices between 13 and 23 October).

There were two exceptions though. The first is Hudson Group. Shares in the company rose +12%, although from a low base with its share price on 23 October (US$12.64) much closer to its 52-week low (US$10.33) and 2019 opening price (US$16.95) than its 52-week high (US$22.25).

Speaking of 52-week highs, Japan Airport Terminal Co – our second exception – reached that milestone in the period tracked here (to JPY 5,360). Shares in the company rose +7.7% and are now up +43.4% since the start of 2019.

There is a pretty even split in the year-to-date differentials of the companies we monitor, in terms of six being positive and five negative. China Duty Free Group parent China International Travel Service (CITS) still leads the way, at +52.1%, with DFS co-parent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in second (+47.6%) ahead of Japan Airport Terminal Co in third.

Those three companies are far ahead of the rest, with Autogrill up a solid +19.5% and Egypt Free Shops Company (+6.2%) and Hotel Shilla (+2.3%) seeing single-digit growth.

Hudson Group has the second largest negative year-to-date differential, at -12.6%, with only Duty Free International behind (-17.9%).

Shares in Dufry (-7.2%), Lagardère Group (-6.1%) and SSP Group (-2%) are also lower than they were on 1 January, but there is still plenty of time in 2019 to reverse that position.