(Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened mixed on Tuesday after the long Easter weekend, amid cautious optimism over a slowdown in Covid-19 deaths around the world and a firm pound.
In France, one of Europe's worst-hit countries, President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address the epidemic there was "beginning to steady...(and) hope is returning." However, he said a strict lockdown in force since March 17 would continue until May 11 - after which schools and businesses could gradually reopen at a "progressive" rate.
In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is recovering after three days in intensive care with the virus and officials have warned the peak was still to come and the lockdown was likely to continue.
The large-cap FTSE 100 index was down 0.2% at 5,829.06. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 0.5%, at 16,320.52. However, the AIM All-Share index was up 1.1% at 753.61.
The Cboe UK 100 index was flat at 9,979.15. The Cboe 250 was up 0.1% at 14,142.15, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.5% at 8,549.68.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2562 Tuesday morning, up from USD1.2455 at the London equities close Thursday.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.5% and up 1.3% respectively early Tuesday.
In the FTSE 100, AstraZeneca was the best performer, up 5.5% after the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said its Tagrisso Phase III Adaura trial will be unblinded early after "overwhelming efficacy" in the treatment of patients with EGFR-mutated lung cancer.
Tagrisso, known chemically as osimertinib, is one of AstraZeneca's flagship oncology therapies.
AstraZeneca noted that its plans for regulatory submission are already underway.
At the other end of the large-cap index, Carnival was the worst performer, down 6.0% after the cruise line operator on Monday said it has cancelled all departures worldwide through to June 26. Carnival had previously cancelled departures to May 10.
In the FTSE 250, National Express was up 5.6% after the transport operator said it has secured GBP600 million from the UK government and Bank of England's Covid Corporate Financing Facility, alongside GBP200 million in extra banking facilities.
Further, National Express said that, before the coronavirus outbreak, the first two months of 2020 delivered significant year-on-year revenue growth of 17%. However, since then the transport company has seen a decline in revenue as services have been withdrawn.
National Express has temporarily suspended all National Express coach services in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, the company said overall revenue for the period to March 31, was still up 8.9% year-on-year in constant currency and 9.4% on a reported basis.
At the other end of the midcaps, Essentra was the worst performer, down 7.9% after Jefferies cut the plastic and fibre products maker to Hold from Buy.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 3.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 1.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.7%.
China's foreign trade fell again in March even as businesses returned to work after the coronavirus outbreak, with the global pandemic weighing on the manufacturing powerhouse's outlook.
Exports fell 6.6% in March from a year earlier and imports dropped 0.9%, according to customs data released Tuesday.
The contraction was less than a Bloomberg economist forecast that predicted a 10% or more decline in both figures, and well short of the 17% plunge in exports seen in the first two months of the year.
The UK government has insisted its plan to tackle the coronavirus pandemic "is working" but warned the nationwide lockdown will not be lifted this week.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Monday showed some cautious optimism as he revealed the latest data suggested the UK was "starting to win this struggle", three weeks after restrictions were imposed.
The euro was quoted at USD1.0940, flat from USD1.0942 late Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY107.71, down from JPY108.50.
Brent oil was quoted at USD31.86 a barrel early Tuesday, down from USD33.18 late Thursday.
Top global oil producers are considering slashing output by 20 million barrels a day under the terms of a deal to boost prices, US President Donald Trump said on Monday.
Trump's remarks came after OPEC producers and their allies agreed on Sunday to cut production by 9.7 million barrels a day, which some analysts feared would be too little to stem the damage from the combination of plunging demand amid the coronavirus pandemic and a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
"People are saying 10 million but we think the number they will actually hit is going to be closer to 20 million barrels a day," Trump said at a press briefing about the coronavirus, referring to how much oil production would be cut.
Gold was quoted at USD1,715.14 an ounce, up sharply from USD1,677.77.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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