Telecoms jump on Vodafone boost
CocaCola HBC rises on upbeat results
FTSE 100 up 0.4, FTSE 250 adds 0.3

Feb 14 Reuters UK39;s FTSE 100 rose to a record high on Tuesday as telecom stocks gained after Liberty Global bought a stake in Vodafone, while investors braced for U.S. inflation data due later in the day.

The bluechip FTSE 100 rose as much as 0.6 to its alltime high, before easing to trade up 0.4. The FTSE 250 midcap index gained 0.3.

Vodafone gained 3.2 after Liberty Global, which owns half of rival Virgin Media O2, said it had bought a near5 stake in the telecoms operator.

The broader telecoms sector index gained 3.0.

Travel and leisure stocks enjoyed an early lead, rising 0.9, with TUI gaining 2.4 after the holiday group said it was seeing a positive travel recovery trend.

Easyjet gained 3.7 after Deutsche Bank raised its rating on the airline39;s stock to buy.

Soft drinks bottler CocaCola HBC AG jumped 3.8 after reporting a betterthanexpected fullyear operating profit.

All eyes are now on U.S. consumer prices data, due later in the day, that could influence the Federal Reserve39;s stance on future monetary policy tightening.

We ended 2022 with this perception that we were going to go into a recession. Then, as the year started, throughout January, we said maybe not recessions but a little bit of a soft landing, said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.

Now we39;ve come to a point where we39;re even questioning ourselves, Is there…