It's turning out to be a pretty top week for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and ASX shares. So far this Friday, the ASX 200 has gained another 0.1%, putting the index at around 7,250 points. That's at a six-month high. The ASX 200 has added value every day this week, bar Monday, and is up 1.3% since last Friday. But let's talk about the Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price.
Although the ASX 200 is having a pleasing week, the Qantas share price is flying far higher. Qantas shares ended last week at $5.88. But yesterday, the airline hit a new 52-week high of $6.36 a share.
That was also a new post-COVID high for the airline, which, until this month, hadn't seen a share price with a '6' in front of it since early 2020.
Although Qantas shares have fallen today, down 0.73% so far at $6.14, the airline is still up a healthy 4.4% over just this week.
So why has the Qantas share price been having such a pleasant week?
Well, it probably has quite a lot to do with the update Qantas gave to investors on Wednesday. This update saw Qantas raise its guidance forecast for the first half of FY2023.
It was only last month that Qantas declared that it expects to make an underlying profit before tax of between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion for the half.
But on Wednesday, just a month later, Qantas told investors that they can add another $150 million to those figures, with the new guidance range set for $1.35-$1.45 billion. This comes off the back of the insatiable demand for travel.
Qantas also declared that it expects net debt to fall to between $2.3 billion and $2.5 billion by the end of December. That represents an improvement of $900 million.
So understandably, investors were very impressed with this update. Qantas shares rose 6% on the day it was released, and remain elevated for the week, despite today's mild falls.
