Britain has woken up to its first day of the new corona regime in which the country has been told to avoid any unnecessary social contacts, travel and public gatherings and some businesses have already started closing down until the worst of the spread of the virus is over.
The FTSE is trading lower but far from the hysteria of the last few days mainly because volumes of trade have shrunk in most stocks except a few banking shares.
A notable exception to the overall declining trend on the index is the Chilean miner Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) which bounced 13% after it reported a substantial increase in full year profits.
The CAC 40 is trading down 1.42%, however, the number is masking the underlying number of sell orders waiting for execution.
The CAC’s decline has been temporarily slowed down by the French financial regulator introducing a ban on short selling of 92 French stocks which were the worst hit on Monday, with the ban to stay in place until the close of day Tuesday.
Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) has joined European car manufacturers Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot, and Vauxhall maker PSA in closing its European plants for two weeks.
Brent holds close to $30
Surprisingly, even with all the negative travel news and more stringent bans on movement across Europe, Brent crude is still managing to hold close to the $30 mark and it has even bounced back from a dip after hours Monday. However with news of industrial closures in Europe on top of the largely grounded air travel, it would take a brave investor to punt on an upward move in oil price.
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