UK lockdown fears sink FTSE into a sea of red

The FTSE is in the red this Monday morning with fears prime minister, Boris Johnson, is reportedly considering a two-week mini-lockdown in England in a bid to stem the spread of the virus. We’ll find out later on this week.

As a consequence – British Airways parent company, IAG, () is one of the biggest fallers this morning. If new restrictions are imposed, it could destroy any hopes of a sales boost over the half-term holidays.

Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum, Ocado () is up on hopes of higher demand if Britain does go into lockdown again. In other news – more than £215m has been returned to the government in furlough scheme payments from UK companies who did need the funds or took it in error.

According to HMRC figures, more than 80K firms have returned cash they were given to help cover workers’ salaries.  () and Standard Chartered () are down today amid allegations of money laundering.

Among the small caps, [email protected] Capital PLC () has unveiled the outline terms of a strategic inventory funding agreement for up to €8bn over five years with a new “captive bank”.

PLC () has acquired a 50% interest in Botswana from Kavango Resources () to be held in a new strategic joint venture holding company.

Maxcyte Inc () has said its full-year revenues are on track to be modestly ahead of current market expectations. With strong revenue driven by annual fees from its cell therapeutics business.