FTSE 100 dropped 1% in the first hour of trading on reports China has locked down Shanghai again. That takes it back to just over 7400, where it last was two weeks ago
Consumer facing stocks, including drinks and retailers, lead the retreat with Coca-Cola HBC, JD Sports, Diageo and AB Foods all lower. Scottish Mortgage is another heavy loser as Chinese stocks feature heavily in its portfolio.
GlaxoSmithKline is looking to submit a new respiratory virus vaccine for approval before the end of the year. The move follows interim results from the third phase of the trial of its trial.
Britain’s top banks all passed a new test that shows that are no longer too big to fail. All the UK’s major banks could safely be closed down without affecting services or the need for a taxpayer bailout in the even of a crisis said the Bank of England.
Among the small caps, Empyrean Energy said it will go ahead with the drilling of the Topaz prospect, offshore China. Empyrean said analysis of data from the previous Jade well had confirmed reservoir parameters are better than pre-drill estimates
Ergomed told shareholders it had made further significant strategic progress in the current year. “Our organic growth has continued with year-to-date revenues increasing in line with prior trends.” said the pharma services specialist.
Netcall the call centre software firm, raised profits guidance after signing a multi-year contract with an S&P 500 international financial services firm. The revenue for the initial three-year cloud subscription period is US$19mln.