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| Tuesday March 31 2020 |
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By Martin Strydom
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Good afternoon: Grocery sales rose by more than a fifth to a record £10.8 billion in the four weeks to March 22 as the country stockpiled food and alcohol in preparation for the coronavirus lockdown.
Kantar, the market researcher, said that supermarket sales jumped 20.6 per cent year on year and the average household spent an extra £62.92, equivalent to five days’ worth of groceries. “That's even higher than levels seen at Christmas,” said Fraser McKevitt, Kantar's head of retail and consumer insight.
Nielsen, a rival research group, found that more than 79 million extra grocery shopping trips were made during the four-week period. The country was put into lockdown on March 23.
British Airways is suspending all flights from Gatwick, the country’s second-biggest airport, as a result of travel restrictions. Gatwick said that it would reduce its flight operations from tomorrow and would open for only eight hours a day. The decision comes a day after Easyjet ground its fleet.
The government is in talks with the industry about a series of financial bailouts. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are now into detailed discussions with the airlines, airports, the ancillary businesses as well, and it is a question of finding the right solutions from the whole range of packages that the chancellor has now announced and then anything that we can do to assist.”
In the eurozone, inflation dropped to 0.7 per cent this month from 1.2 per cent in February, mostly the result of the sharp drop in oil prices. Economists expect inflation to fall further as government lockdowns result in a slowdown in economic activity. Unsurprisingly, food price inflation went the other way, accelerating to 3.5 per cent from 2.6 per cent.
In other corporate news, the competition regulator has cleared the £10 billion merger between Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment and Stars Group, which owns Sky Bet. |
| Martin Strydom |
| Business News Editor |
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| Market snap |
The FTSE 100 looks set to avoid suffering its worst ever quarter after European stock markets built on Monday’s gains.
Sentiment in the City was boosted by signs of stabilisation in Italy, the country worst hit by the coronavirus outbreak, as well as better than expected economic data out of China.
The FTSE 100 added 98.37 points, or 1.8 per cent, in morning trading to reach 5,662.11.It had looked as though the index might record its biggest ever quarterly fall, but its hot start to the week means that it is now down “only” 24.9 per cent since the beginning of the year, compared with the 27.9 per cent plunge seen at the end of 1987, the FTSE 100’s worst ever quarter.
Leading the blue chips higher this morning was Imperial Brands, which was up 167¾p, or 12.6 per cent, to £15.01 after confirming that the virus had not stopped people buying its cigarettes, which include Lambert & Butler.
Investors also backed Flutter, the owner of Paddy Power, after UK competition regulators approved its mega-merger with Stars Group, the company behind Sky Bet. Shares in Flutter were up 672p, or 10.1 per cent, at £73.06.
Royal Dutch Shell flowed 79¼p, or 6.3 per cent, higher to £13.41 as oil prices steadied, while traders read between the lines of its first-quarter update, which made no mention of any changes to its dividend policy.
The FTSE 250 recovered some of its recent losses as it climbed 416.11 points, or 2.9 per cent, to 15,040.74.Bargain hunters were snapping up shares in some of the stocks that have been hardest hit in the coronavirus sell-off. Marston’s, the pubs group, frothed 4¾p, or 13.0 per cent, up to 41½p and Trainline, the ticket booking site, steamed 7p, or 11.1 per cent, higher to 69p.
Aston Martin, the troubled carmaker, reversed 13½p, or 6.0 per cent, to 212½p, though, after it was forced to open a new $100 million credit line to avoid running out of money within a year with its factories now shut as a result of the pandemic.
Tom Howard
Market Reporter |
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FTSE risers and fallers*
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Up
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Imperial Brands
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+13.3%
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Melrose Industries
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+12.9%
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Flutter Entertainment
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+8.9%
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Royal Dutch Shell
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+6.2%
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Easyjet
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+6.0%
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Down
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Experian
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-3.8%
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United Utilities
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-3.6%
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Tesco
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-3.1%
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Pennon Group
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-2.9%
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Auto Trader
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-2.7%
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Markets
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FTSE100
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5607.60
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+0.79%
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FTSE250
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14987.19
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+2.48%
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Cac
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9897.98
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+0.84%
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Dax
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4380.67
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+0.05%
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Brent crude
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23.50
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+3.25%
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Gold
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1599.8309
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-1.36%
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GBP/$
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1.2353
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-0.51%
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GBP/€
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1.1286
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+0.46%
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10Y gilt
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146.207
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-0.10%
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*As at noon
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US day ahead
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The consumer confidence index for March, published at 3pm UK time, is expected to show a sharp decline 110 from a reading of 130.7 last month.
The weekly Redbook report on bricks-and-mortar retail sales is at 1.55pm and the Case-Shiller home prices for January are at 2pm.
James Dean
US Business Editor
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martin.strydom@thetimes.co.uk
@strydo
