£8bn cancer ruling
More than £8bn was wiped off the value of the German company behind roundup after a court ruled the weedkiller caused cancer.
Shares in pharma and chemicals group Bayer fell 11pc on the stock market in Frankfurt – slashing its value from £78bn to £69.5bn. The slump came after Bayer’s US subsidiary Monsanto was ordered to pay £226m damages to school groundsman Dewayne Johnson who claimed its weedkillers gave him non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014.
The firm is appealing the verdict, insisting glyphosate, a key ingredient in its weedkillers, is not carcinogenic.