'Strong' Tesco sales fail to lift FTSE as travel companies weigh

UK tourism industry continues to suffer

Travel companies drove the FTSE 100 down to its lowest level in almost four months in morning trading today despite Tesco reporting a "strong Christmas", which pushed up the supermarket's shares by 5%.

The UK's blue-chip index dropped to 5,863 points by 10.15am, its lowest intraday level since late August 2015, with InterContinental Hotels Group and airline company TUI both falling as the UK tourism sector continues to suffer. InterContinental was down 5%, trading at £23.63, while TUI fell by 4.1% to £12.05. Hargreaves Lansdown was also among the FTSE 100's biggest losers, with shares dropping 4.5% to £12.80 and Merlin Entertainments was down 5.3% to 407.3p, after analysts at J.P. Morgan Cazenove downgraded its rating to ‘underweight'. A weak trading session in the US also marred...