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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened lower on Monday with oil majors weighing on the FTSE 100 as oil prices sank, while easyjet was lower after grounding its entire fleet.
The large-cap FTSE 100 index was down 31.36 points, or 0.4%, at 5,478.97.
The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 99.55 points, or 0.7%, at 14,670.25. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.4% at 661.44.
The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.3% at 9,284.81. The Cboe 250 was down 0.3% at 12,743.75, and the Cboe Small Companies was flat at 8,052.68.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 1.7% and 0.6% respectively early Monday.
"After an initial flurry higher the European markets were dragged lower on Monday, the unavoidable fact of oil's continued decline especially hurting the FTSE," Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said.
In the FTSE 100, Johnson Matthey was the best performer, up 3.2% despite the speciality chemicals company saying it was unable to provide any outlook due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Johnson Matthey said it has a strong balance sheet and good access to liquidity with substantial cash resources and significant undrawn bank facilities.
However, the platinum and chemicals firm said that it currently expects to take a hit of around GBP50 million on trading performance from Covid-19. This was due to a combination of reduced demand in its Clean Air business, which serves the auto industry, and around GBP20 million of delayed shipments caused by logistics challenges across other businesses, Johnson Matthey said.
At the other end of the large cap index, easyJet was down 7.0% after the budget airline said it grounded the remainder of its aircraft fleet, after completing hundreds of repatriation flights in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
easyJet said that at this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights and will continuously evaluate the situation based on regulations and demand.
FTSE 250 peer Wizz Air Holdings was down 5.5%, while Irish carrier Ryanair Holdings was down 1.3%.
Oil majors were in the red, tracking spot oil prices lower. BP was down 3.1%, while Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares were down 2.9% and 2.5% respectively.
Brent oil was quoted at USD23.44 a barrel Monday morning, down from USD25.03 late Friday. The North Sea benchmark fell to USD23.03 overnight - its lowest level since November 2002.
Shell is London's largest company by market capitalisation, while BP is third biggest.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.6%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.0%.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2341 Monday morning, down from USD1.2427 at the London equities close Friday.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK will get through the coronavirus crisis "together" after Britons were warned restrictions on their lives may last for at least six months. The prime minister issued the words of encouragement, praising the 750,000 volunteers who have offered to assist the NHS, from within Downing Street where he is isolating having tested positive for Covid-19.
The deputy chief medical officer for England, Jenny Harries, said the nation will not be in "complete lockdown" for half a year but said social distancing measures will be lifted gradually.
The euro was quoted at USD1.1075, flat from USD1.1071 late Friday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY107.75, down from JPY108.07.
Gold was quoted at USD1,613.07 an ounce, lower than USD1,626.20.
The economic events calendar on Monday has UK mortgage approvals at 0930 BST and Germany inflation readings at 1300 BST.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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