This morning the government’s chief medical and scientific advisors, Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance addressed the nation with a diagnosis of where we are with Covid-19.
They outlined a scenario that could see circa 50,000 new Covid-19 cases a day within a month from now, and Sir Patrick Vallance said he would expect to see in the region of ‘200 plus deaths per day’ a month after that.
So, as the nation took in more news that nobody wants to digest, the messages were left hanging with no clear indication of what the government will do about it, until the Prime Minister condescends to communicate them.
Stock markets do not like uncertainty, and the gap in diagnosis and prescriptive measures did nothing today to aid an already bearish London Stock Exchange.
Today the FTSE 100 shed £51bn in value down 202 points, 3.3% as confidence eroded through the day’s trading. The FTSE 250 index fell even more sharply, down almost 4% or 698 points seeing shares lose £12bn.
The regional lockdown measures across the country already impacting hospitality businesses saw pub group Mitchells & Butler lose 15% of their value in just one day.
The FTSE 350 Travel & Leisure Index was down even further seeing losses of 343 points or 5.2% from leading hospitality businesses.
Foodservice giant Compass led losses today with a huge 6.3% drop in valuation seeing their share price drop to 1,207.5 down by 55.5p.
With ‘talk’ across every major media channel online and on television trying to piece together what a multitude of ministers have said, and growing speculation on what the government may or may not do, until the Prime Minister does something financial markets look set to continue downwards.
Not good for the economy and not good for an already battered and bruised hospitality industry.
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