FTSE brushes off record UK Covid-19 cases as vaccine optimism still prevails

FTSE 100 started on the front foot although daily cases of Covid-19 in the UK topped 60,000 for the first time on Tuesday. London’s leading index advanced 31 points to 6,643 in early trading.

The latest Covid figures have revealed that one in 50 people in private households in England had Covid last week – and one in 30 in London

() warned that profits will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022 at the earliest and it will slump to a £15mln loss this year. The baker also cut 820 jobs to save costs.

PLC () and () confirmed they will continue operating during lockdown under the building supplies exemption. However, Topps Tiles expects sales and margins to be hit due to store closures.

Japanese car producer Honda has once again halted production at its UK plant in Swindon. The factory can’t operate due to global supply delays.
Among the small caps, () was awarded a provisional iGaming supplier licence in the US.

() is getting close to spudding the Merlin exploration well at the Project Peregrine in Alaska. The explorer confirmed the completion of a snow road and said that rig construction is now underway.

Seeing Machines Limited () has signed a licence agreement for its Occula neural processing unit with digital imaging solutions firm . Occula allows the development of artificial intelligence to help the interaction between humans and machines.