MARKET REPORT

MARKETS faced another nightmare day yesterday, with London’s top index losing more than 4% of its value at one point.

The FTSE 100 closed the day down 246.07 points to 6796.4, a 3.5% drop.

Despite the enormous fall, at one point things looked like they could have been worse.

The index that reached as low as 6,731.35 around an hour before closing for the day. But in a nightmare week for traders yesterday’s rout is only the second worst day, after Monday when the top flight lost 247.09 points. Analysts might have hoped for a let-up after the FTSE rose slightly on Wednesday.

It means that £152bn has been wiped off the index in the last four days amid fears around Covid-19.

There was plenty of company news, with a solitary few shares managing to stay in positive territory because of strong releases.

Prime among these was

whose shares gained 4.6%, or 84.5p to 1,910p after it signed a deal to bring one of its nasal sprays to the US and showed soaring profits. The business said that it was not being hit by the coronavirus outbreak.

Rentokil also gained, up 8.4p to 504p, after it said that that adjusted profit before tax rose 10.7% to £340.9m in 2019 on revenue of £2.7bn, which grew 9.8%.

At the other end of the spectrum

could not purely blame coronavirus for its awful showing as shares plummeted 16%, or 146.8p, to 761.6p after the advertising giant said its most-watched measure of revenue, which removes pass-through costs, fell 0.3% to £10.8bn in 2019.

Pre-tax profit fell 22% to £982 as the company embarks on another year of turnaround.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were up 84.5p to 1,910p, up 8.4p to 504p, and up 3p to 535p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were down 146.8p to 761.6p,

down 39.6p to 337p, down 58.2p to 655.80p, down 44.2p to 515.40p, and easyJet, down 92.5p to 1,110p.