Pfizer’s vaccine against the Brazil variant of Covid-19 gives FTSE boost

FTSE 100 was moving higher early on as a good performance by ’s vaccine against the Brazil variant of Covid-19 lifted the mood. London’s blue-chip index rose 10 to 6,729.

UK retail sales improved almost 10% in February as Valentine’s Day and the return to school encouraged people to spend. School equipment and uniforms sold especially well, said the British Retail Consortium.

ITV said most programmes are now back in production while streaming service BritBox hit 500,000 UK subscriptions in January. The service now has 2.6mln subscribers globally with US growth especially strong.

Britain is set for a five-year house price boom according to . London is set for rises of up to 13% but the biggest hikes will be in the north-west and Yorkshire said the estate agent.

Among the small caps, diagnostics specialist genedrive PLC () has inked a deal with a US military contracting specialist. The latter will distribute the BioPlex range, which provides rapid tests for threats from pathogens.

() has secured a financing agreement with US investment manager LDA Capital. The CBD group will be able to access up to £35mln over three years.

Westmount Energy Limited () expects operations for the next well at the Canje block offshore Guyana to start tomorrow. The oiler holds a 7.7% shareholding in JHI Associates, which is a minority stakeholder in the project, operated by ExxonMobil.