Weekly review

The FTSE 100 ended the week down 379.12 points at 6,105.18.

Equity view

Pub and restaurant operator Mitchells & Butlers said it had scrapped dividends until the end of the 2021 financial year in return for new loan financing and waivers as it dealt with the coronavirus crisis.

FTSE 250 waste management company Biffa said on Friday that it has raised £100m in a placing to reduce leverage, help weather the Covid-19 pandemic and allow it to take advantage of any opportunities that might arise.

Fresh food group Bakkavor reported sharp falls in UK like-for-like revenues in April and May as the coronavirus lockdown took hold.

Morrisons faces heated discussions with investors over pay after more than a third of shareholder votes opposed the supermarket group's remuneration policy at its annual general meeting.

Online retailer Ocado said it was raising £1bn as it sought to exploit the rapid change in internet grocery shopping habits sparked by the coronavirus crisis.

Just Eat Takeaway has agreed to buy GrubHub of the US for $7.3bn (£5.8bn) in an all-share deal to create the world's biggest online food delivery company outside China.

Specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey said on Thursday that it will cut around 2,500 jobs and halve its dividend as it takes a hit from the coronavirus pandemic.

Comparison website Moneysupermarket said on Thursday that forward guidance for 2020 remains suspended as it is still too early to gauge when and how the consumer and provider sides of its marketplace will be back to normal.

Shaftesbury warned that at least half its rent could go uncollected in the second half as the London West End property company reported a drop in the value of its portfolio as the Covid-19 crisis struck.

Paragon Banking Group reported an underlying profit £57.2m in its first half on Wednesday, down from £79.8m year-on-year, as its statutory profit before tax slid to £57.1m from £72m.

Segro has increased the size of its fundraising by £30m because of strong demand for new shares issued to finance its expansion plans.

Property manager LondonMetric paid a fourth quarter dividend as it looked to cash in on the rise in online shopping during the coronavirus lockdown.

Aveva left its final dividend unchanged as the industrial software company announced a 22% increase in annual profit and up to £60m of cost reductions.

Self-storage company Big Yellow lifted its dividend on Tuesday as it posted a rise in full-year profit.

Oxford Instruments deferred a decision on its dividend after the Covid-19 crisis hit orders in the first two months of the current year.

Bellway updated the market on its operations on Tuesday, reporting that construction activity had restarted at around 230 sites, while all remaining sales offices reopened in England on 1 June.

Segro has bought a 34-acre warehouse site in West London for £202.5m from Federated Hermes.

AstraZeneca has approached Gilead Sciences of the US about a potential merger to create a $240bn drugmaker, according to a report.

Mediterranean-focussed gas producer Energean announced the restart of work on the Energean Power FPSO in Singapore’s Admiralty Yard on Monday, adding that the subsea installation campaign, offshore Israel, was progressing as planned.

Amigo abandoned its sale plans and said a surge in customer complaints meant the cost of clearing a backlog of grievances would cost at least £35m.

Economic news

The UK economy contracted by a record 20.4% on the month in April as the coronavirus lockdown took its toll, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Friday.

The inequality gap in the UK is set to widen unless the government decides to act and tackles these differences among the general public, said the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

The housing market has picked up quickly since restrictions were eased, a closely-watched survey confirmed on Thursday, but house prices remain under pressure.

UK job losses continued to mount in their thousands on Thursday as Centrica, Johnson Matthey and Bombardier became the latest companies to announce large reductions to their workforces in the Covid-19 crisis.

At least 70,000 jobs are at risk in the UK aviation industry and its supply chains in the next three months as the sector is battered by the coronavirus crisis, a report said.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused the deepest global recession in a century, with the UK economy likely to suffer the worst damage among developed nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Wednesday.

UK retail sales continued to fall in May but the pace of decline eased as shoppers ventured out in warm weather, an industry survey showed.

The UK has recorded about 64,000 more deaths than usual since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, an expert from the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday.

British households are expected to face debts due to the hardships brought on by the coronavirus crisis worth a combined £6bn.

Up to £36bn of government backed business loans issued during the Covid-19 crisis could be unsustainable by early 2021, a City working group has warned.

International events

Eurozone industrial production plunged at the fastest pace on record in April as Covid-19 lockdowns shut down economies across the single currency area, official figures showed.

The world's economy is recovering more slowly than expected from the Covid-19 pandemic which is also likely to leave enduring scars, the world's watchdog for financial stability said.

The euro area's largest economy may be set for an even sharper contraction than was already feared if the latest forecasts from research institute DIW are anything to go by.

The US Treasury Secretary backed calls for further fiscal stimulus which he credited with having already saved at least 50m jobs.

The European Central Bank is working on plans for a "bad bank" to house hundreds of billions of euros in potential bad debts as the Covid-19 crisis takes its toll on businesses and households, according to a report.

Consumer price inflation in China slowed in May amid declining food prices ,according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

Oil prices are set to fall again this year in another blow the global economy as production resumptions created oversupply, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs.

The French aerospace industry was thrown a €15bn (£13.37bn) lifeline by the government on Tuesday with warnings of massive job losses in the sector as the coronavirus crisis battered air travel.

German industrial production recorded its worst monthly decline on record in April amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to figures released by Destatis on Monday.

China’s economy continued to struggle in May as the Covid-19 pandemic caused global demand to slump and weighed heavily on imports.