Weekly review

The FTSE 100 ended the week down 133.3 points at 6,159.30.

Equity view

Budget carrier easyJet said it had agreed a sale and leaseback deal for six Airbus A320neo aircraft for $255m (£206m) to Japan’s SMBC Aviation.

Workspace has been given planning consent for the mixed-use redevelopment of two adjacent properties it owns in Wandsworth, South West London.

Weir Group said it refinanced almost $1.2bn of main banking facilities at a slightly higher cost and that its mining markets were resilient during the Covid-19 crisis.

Marston's first half profit fell by more than 70% after the Covid-19 lockdown knocked £40m off revenues in March.

BAE Systems said first-half profit would fall by about 15% because of Covid-19 disruption but that demand for its services was high and it expects much stronger trading in the second half.

The London Stock Exchange has appointed Anna Manz - currently chief financial officer of Johnson Matthey - as its new CFO with effect from 21 November.

LondonMetric Property announced two acquisitions for a total consideration of £72.9m on Thursday, with both transactions having previously been identified by the company at the time of its recent equity placing.

Unite Group has successfully completed its placing of shares in the company for gross proceeds of approximately £300.0m.

GVC Holdings said sport betting was reviving in line with its expectations as events resumed and that it was encouraged by early signs of customers returning to its retail outlets as Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed.

Persimmon has recruited National Express chief executive Dean Finch as the housebuilder's next CEO to replace David Jenkinson.

Pub group JD Wetherspoon confirmed it had secured a £48.3m loan under the government’s coronavirus loan scheme as it prepared to open 750 pubs on 4 July.

Avon Rubber announced on Wednesday that its Avon Protection division has been awarded a sole source requirements contract to supply the United States Department of Defense with its ‘M50 Mask System’, related spares and accessories.

Net inflows at wealth manager St James’s Place fell to £0.67bn in May amid market volatility caused by the coronavirus.

Royal Bank of Scotland said it had extended an account switching scheme for business customers by six months so they could take advantage of incentives to move to other banks.

Bookmakers were under pressure on Tuesday after the state of California pulled a bill that would have legalised sports betting in person and online.

Poundland owner Pepco Group reported a fall in interim profits as the coronavirus pandemic hit sales with customers still wary of going into stores even after the easing of lockdown measures.

Cineworld said it had secured a new $250m debt facility to bolster its balance sheet as cinemas started to re-open around the world after Covid-19 lockdowns.

Wealth manager Close Brothers said Adrian Sainsbury had been selected to succeed Preben Prebensen as chief executive.

Retailer JD Sports Fashion confirmed it had filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators for its camping unit Go Outdoors as it considered a number of “strategic options” for the chain.

Segro has sold City Park Vienna, comprising a cross-dock warehouse, a recently developed urban warehouse park and development land, to Nuveen Real Estate, it announced on Monday.

Economic news

UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak warned companies struggling from the impact of the coronavirus that any government-backed rescue would have to meet an "extraordinarily high" bar.

Retailers reported another steep drop in sales in June and remained pessimistic about the near-term outlook with reopened shops expecting poor sales, a Confederation of British Industry survey showed.

UK airports face up to 20,000 job losses as the sector faced a significant decline in passenger numbers post-Covid 19, the industry body warned on Wednesday as it called for government help.

The downturn in UK business activity eased in June, with the manufacturing sector returning to growth as some Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, according to flash data released on Tuesday.

Online grocery sales surged in the last month, industry research showed on Tuesday, as the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown shook up traditional shopping habits.

Coronavirus lockdown measures have been further eased in England, with pubs, restaurants, hotels, hairdressers and cinemas allowed to reopen on July 4, the government said on Tuesday.

Britain’s motor industry has called for a bespoke government “restart” package as it warned one in six jobs in the sector could be at risk from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Financial Conduct Authority has appointed London Stock Exchange boss Nikhil Rathi as its new chief executive officer.

Britain's manufacturing sector suffered its worst quarter since 1975 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown as factories shut and global demand collapsed.

The pressure on household finances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic eased slightly in June, a survey showed on Monday, although the ongoing crisis continued to weigh on sentiment.

International events

The University of Michigan's consumer confidence index jumped from May's level of 72.3 to 78.1 for June, coming in slightly worse than the preliminary reading of 78.9 published roughly a fortnight before.

China is approving plans for new coal power plant capacity at the fastest rate since 2015 in an attempt to boost the economy amid the pandemic crisis.

The Trump administration announced that the funding for 13 testing sites for Covid-19 will end in June because, it said, it could cause further spread of the disease.

Firings in the US only dipped a little last week but the figures most closely linked to hiring did show some improvement.

Business confidence in Germany improved in June as lockdown measures were eased, according to a survey released by the Ifo Institute on Wednesday.

The International Monetary Fund cut its 2020 economic outlook and warned that government deficits would soar after the cost of the Covid-19 crisis reached more than $10trn (£8trn).

China is prepared to send the final satellite to space that will complete its own global navigation network Beidou and will allow it to rely less on US tech.

Second-hand home sales fell more quickly than expected last month but analysts pointed to various data points, including falling mortgage rates, that augured a rebound in the coming month.

Levels of antibodies in people who have suffered Covid-19 reportedly falls sharply in the two to three months following their infection, a study showed, although the implications for patient immunity were unclear.

An incoming new judge to Germany's Constitutional Court signalled optimism that the dispute with the European Central Bank over the latter's bond buying programme could be resolved.