44 V2 Tuesday December 21 2021 | the times
BusinessMarkets
Company Change
Rentokil Initial Rally after stock slipped last week 6.5%
McBride Bounces back after eight-month slide 6.3%
Oxford Biomedica Hopes for drug manufacturing deal 5.2%
Moneysupermarket Investors move in after recent weakness 4.3%
Avon Protection Recovery after 75 per cent share price crash 3.5%
Antofagasta Weakness in copper price -5.5%
Trustpilot Fears of a slowdown in people going out -6.8%
Hyve Conferences at risk of hit from Omicron -7%
Cineworld Cinema chain fears new restrictions -7.1%
The Gym Group Potential slowdown in gym sector -8.8%The day’s biggest movers
Major indices
New York
Dow Jones 34932.16 (-433.28)
Nasdaq Composite 14980.94 (-188.74)
S&P 500 4568.02 (-52.62)
Tokyo
Nikkei 225 27937.81 (-607.87)
Hong Kong
Hang Seng 22744.86 (-447.77)
Amsterdam
AEX Index 763.03 (-8.67)
Sydney
AO 7602.20 (-24.00)
Frankfurt
DAX 15239.67 (-292.02)
Singapore
Straits 3072.97 (-38.66)
Brussels
BEL20 4162.44 (-8.72)
Paris
CAC-40 6870.10 (-56.53)Zurich
SMI Index 12589.89 (-125.59)
DJ Euro Stoxx 50 4107.13 (-54.22)London
FTSE 100 7198.03 (-71.89)
FTSE 250 22549.88 (-230.50)
FTSE 350 4111.24 (-41.23)
FTSE Eurotop 100 3424.63 (-51.31)
FTSE All-Shares 4089.84 (-41.10)
FTSE Non Financials 4936.30 (-42.76)
techMARK 100 6678.86 (-41.71)
Bargains n/a
US$ 1.3213 (-0.0015)
Euro 1.1707 (-0.0057)
£:SDR 0.98 (+0.00)
Exchange Index 81.63 (-0.20)
Bank of England official close (4pm)
CPI 114.48 Nov (2015 = 100)
RPI 314.30 Nov (Jan 1987 = 100)
RPIX 290.10 Jun (Jan 1987 = 100)
Morningstar Long Commodity 677.16 (+5.72)
Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4703.45 (+27.75)PRICES
Royal Mail was lifted by the prospect of fewer people giving gifts in person
ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGESRobert Lea Market report
Crumbs of comfort ease
the pain for Christmas
past month or so, easyJet is hovering
around the £5-a-share level — its
worst since the onset of Covid-19 and
since the recovery from the last global
recession a decade ago. It closed
down 2p, or 0.4 per cent, at 506½p.
Strip out the stock crashes that
afflicted airlines as the pandemic first
engulfed the West and shares in
International Consolidated Airlines
Group have barely been this low
since it was formed a decade ago with
the merger of British Airways and
Iberia. They were off 1p, or 0.8 per
cent at almost 131p yesterday. Tui, the
holiday group, lost 1¼p, or 0.6 per
cent, to end the day at 214¼p.
Analysts from Morgan Stanley have
decided that aerospace stocks are
undervalued, under-owned and underthe weather because of Omicron.
Global air traffic is at 38 per cent of
pre-Covid levels, which leads the
broker to conclude that there is plenty
of upside for when we return to some
form of normality. However, none of
that did much for sentiment around
Rolls-Royce, shares of which closed
3.3 per cent, or 3¾p, awry at 110½p.
Elsewhere in the skies, Canaccord
Genuity, the broker, was advising its
clientele to fill up with a bit of Air
Partner as the company known for its
chartering of business jets has been
busy in the freight market, too. Some
may have missed the flight. After
ascending to a high at the end of last
week of 89p, the stock closed down
2.9 per cent, or 2½p, at 83p.A
t this time of the year, the
Good Book encourages us
to think about the Alpha
and the Omega;
unfortunately, in 2021 it’smore about the Delta and the
Omicron. The City, having heard a
similar tale 12 months ago, decided to
search for some small comforts.
People won’t be visiting friends and
family so much, so again more gifts
will be going through Royal Mail, up
7¼p, or 1.5 per cent, at 503½p. Folk
won’t be going out so much, either, so
stocking up on food and booze lifted
Tesco 3¼p, or 1.1 per cent, to 287½p,
and J Sainsbury 1½p, or 0.5 per cent,
to 272¾p.
These were among the bright lights
on a generally miserable day on the
markets, which appear to have re-
embraced the Covid bug. And
contrast their fortunes with some of
those businesses that rely on people
venturing past their front doors: The
Gym Group tripped and fell 8.8 per
cent, or 22½p, to 234p and the big
picture was pretty bleak at
Cineworld, down 7.1 per cent, or 2½p,
at 31¼p. The FTSE 100 was off 1 per
cent, closing 75.89 points lighter at
7,198.03, and the FTSE 250 was down
a similar percentage, falling 230.5 to
22,549.88.
On the flipside, the Aim-listed
Keywords Studios is reckoned to be a
likely winner in a long winter evening
of electronic gaming. The £1 billion
stock, whose titles include feeling the
Force while training to be a Jedi and
exerting the force in a classic Call of
Duty shoot-up — all very seasonal —
rose nearly 10 per cent, or 242p, to
£27.52.
Another Christmas tradition is
booking next year’s holidays. Despite
the airline industry insisting that the
short-haul and holiday market next
summer should look pretty much like
2019, there’s a chill wind blowing
through the sector. As it has for theWall Street report
After last week’s losses, indices
resumed their downward drift,
hobbled by Covid concerns and fears
for the future of President Biden’s
economic stimulus plans. The Dow
Jones industrial average fell 433.28
points, or 1.2 per cent, to 34,932.16.