FTSE 100 shrugged off the lockdown blues to open higher as investors instead focused on tomorrow’s US presidential election. London’s blue-chip index rose 9 points to 5,586 in early trades.
AB Foods (LON:ABF) expects to burn through £375mln of cash from the temporary closures of its Primark stores in November as a result of the latest UK coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Many shops elsewhere in Europe are already shut.
Ryanair (LON:RYA) posted an interim loss as coronavirus restrictions meant passenger numbers fell by 80% during the first half of its latest financial year. Summer is when the Irish airline usually makes all of its money, but this time revenues fell by 78%.
Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO) has begun to reach its robotic arms beyond the grocery market with two tech acquisitions. The food distributor also lifted guidance for profits this year after strong trading at its UK retail business. Arkle Resources
(LON:ARK) is in favour after identifying new gold targets at its gold projects in Ireland, following soil sampling. A programme for trenching and drilling at the Inishowen gold project in County Donegal is planned to commence shortly.
The University of Oxford is using an app developed by Sensyne Health (LON:SENS) in a new clinical study for COVID-19. The technology will provide access to study information and links to training materials to trial new tests for asymptomatic patients.
Domain name specialist CentralNic (LON:CNIC) has completed its acquisition of Codewise for US$36mln. The deal is expected to increase CentralNic’s earnings by 20%.
