Vaccine hopes reverse big fall on markets

A big fall was followed by a dramatic rise on London’s main index yesterday.

The FTSE 100 recovered from a 1.4% drop to finish the day down just 11.78 points, or 0.2%, at 6,157.96.

It came as news of a potential breakthrough in the fight against coronavirus filtered through to global markets, reversing a Europe-wide sell-off.

A clinical study run by pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and German company BioNTech showed positive results for a potential vaccine.

It helped spur markets on both sides of the Atlantic.

The earlier downturn had been sparked by fears over the new cases caused by an opening of the economy.

Frankfurt’s Dax index closed the day down by 0.4%, Paris’s Cac dropped 0.2%.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, the S&P 500 was on track for a 0.5% gain and the Dow Jones a 0.1% rise shortly after markets closed in Europe.

The price of a pound rose by 0.6% to 1.2479 against the dollar and by 0.4% to 1.1088 when compared to the euro.

Crude oil also rose, with Brent up by 1.6% to 41.95 US dollars per barrel.

In company news, the revelation that bosses at discount retailer B&M have been eyeing a “steady recovery” in customer numbers was celebrated by shareholders, who sent the firm’s stock up by 4.9%.

British Land’s shares took a 0.4% tumble as the company revealed that it had only managed to collect a little over a third of the rent from shops that was due for the three months to the end of June.