Pub, leisure stocks help push FTSE higher as England prepares to lift

We started the day with a warning from Credit Suisse that it will take a 4.4 billion Swiss franc hit (£3.4bn) over the Archegos Capital fallout.

Compounded by the crisis surrounding Greensill Capital, the bank said it’s now facing a 900m Swiss franc loss (£690m) for Q1. Two execs are leaving as a result, bonuses have been scrapped and dividends slashed.

But European stocks were solidly in positive territory throughout the trading day, helped by pent up trading over the long Easter weekend.

The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 were among the best performers, as the planned easing of lockdowns in England fuelled interest in commodity stocks, pubs and leisure companies.

It even helped the FTSE 250 rise to pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, official figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed new car registrations in the UK rose 11.5% in March, compared to a year earlier, totalling 283,964 vehicles.

And in further positive news for the UK, the IMF revised its global and UK growth forecasts higher, citing stronger than expected recovery from the Covid crisis.

Across the pond, US stocks opened slightly lower, suggesting a more subdued start to trading following Monday’s record highs.

That’s all from us today. We’ll be back tomorrow from 8am. Stay safe –KM

US stocks have opened slightly lower, suggesting a more subdued start to trading following Monday’s record highs.

Here are the initial prints:

• S&P 500 is down 7 points or 0.18% at 4,070 points
• Dow is down 72 points or 0.2% at 33,455 points
• Nasdaq is down 21 points or 0.15% at 13,684 points

Just days after Deliveroo made its (conditional, yet disappointing) stock market debut last week, its riders are planning a strike.

“Hundreds” of Deliveroo riders from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) are expected to hold socially distanced protests in London, York, Sheffield, Reading and Wolverhampton on Wednesday, the union said.

They’re demanding fairer firing policies, better pay, and health and safety protection for riders.

It comes after analysis by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism found that riders were making as little as £2 an hour, and will coincide with the unconditional trading of Deliveroo’s shares on the London Stock Exchange.

Greg Howard, a Deliveroo rider and chair of the Couriers & Logistics Branch of the IWGB has said:

I’m going on strike for my basic rights and those of all the other…