A man takes part in a demonstration at the London stock exchange during an Extinction Rebellion protest in London, Britain April 25, 2019. — Reuters pic
Britain’s health minister said the novel coronavirus was accelerating with hospital admissions doubling every eight days, but refused to say whether or not another national lockdown would be imposed next month. “There is a glass half-empty half-full situation right now,” said Roland Kaloyan, strategist at SocGen.
A raft of stimulus and optimism around a post-pandemic recovery have helped the FTSE 100 bounce from a coronavirus-induced slump in March, but the index has lagged its U.S. and European peers with the domestic economy heading towards its worst recession in 300 years.