London’s FTSE fell 30.5 points or 0.49% to 6,195.3 on Tuesday as fears of a resurgence of COVID-19 cases were reinforced by new lockdown measures, notably in the UK city of Leicester.
Also weighing on sentiment was the news that the UK’s first quarter GDP reading has been revised lower.
In corporate news, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) slipped 1.8% to £12.48 as the oil giant warned that it would book a massive net impairment charge in the second quarter of up to $22bn after it cut its oil price forecasts in the wake of the crisis.
Hotel chain InterContinental Hotels (IHG) cheapened 31p to £36.15 after forecasting second quarter room revenue to tumble 75%, though it also said it had seen signs of improvements as the pace of hotels reopening continued to accelerate.
Housebuilder Redrow (RDW) cheapened 6.6% to 432p after it said annual sales had slipped 36% and its profit would be ‘substantially’ lower after lockdowns had a ‘profound’ impact on results that were meant to be second half weighted.
On the bright side, Redrow has entered the new financial year with a record order book of £1.42 billion.
Cineworld (CINE) rallied 6% to 60.8p on plans to reopen cinemas in the UK and US from 31 July, albeit a date pushed back from 10 July amid recent adjustments to the schedule of upcoming movie releases.
Engineer Smiths (SMIN) skipped 6.6% higher to £13.84 as it announced that it would cut an as-yet-unspecified number of jobs as part of a restructuring process and announced a rise in year-to-date revenue.
Advertising firm M&C Saatchi (SAA:AIM) rallied 6.1% to 52p on relief that the COVID-19 crisis hadn’t hurt its business in April and May as severely as the company had first expected.
On The Beach (OTB) softened 2.5% to 294.5p as the online travel agent swung to a first half loss after the crisis hammered international tourism markets and announced that finance director Paul Meehan has resigned to pursue other interests.
On current trading, the company said there had been a significant increase in bookings from mid-June, albeit from a very low base.
Telematics technology tiddler Trakm8 (TRAK:AIM) ticked up 15.4% to 15p as it reported a modest return to sales growth and narrowed losses for the year to March 2020 and announced new contract wins with two new significant insurance companies.
