FTSE drops below 7000 as inflation concerns take centre stage

The Market Report with Katie Pilbeam.

FTSE 100 was yanked back from its recent 14-month highs as markets worldwide started to worry about inflation. London’s leading index plunged 161 points to 6,962 in early trading.

British Airways owner IAG () is tapping institutions in Frankfurt for €800mln through a convertible bond issue. The airline is looking for cash to restart the schedule as restrictions ease in its markets.

Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC () is eyeing better profits now that COVID-19 costs are falling and cafes are about to reopen. Quarterly sales rose nearly 5% including fuel.

The UK government has sold a £1.1bn chunk of shares in PLC (), cutting its stake to 54.8%. The bank was bailed out in 2008 at a cost to the taxpayer of £45bn.

The City Pub Group PLC () said trading has been encouraging since pubs were allowed to reopen for outdoor trading. The pubs group has 24 of its 45 pubs open at present and despite not being able to serve customers indoors, trading is at 77% of 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels.

’s () Parsortix technology has been used by an Italian research team for a breast cancer study to successfully identify tumour cells in blood tests.  Parsortix was used to isolate circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in patients with recurrent disease.

Serabi Gold PLC (LON:SRB) has revealed that around US$200,000 of cash has gone missing and can’t be traced. The unexplained cash drain stretches back six years, said the miner.