The UK's FTSE 100 dropped significantly on Monday, tracking a drop in global equity markets as investors worried about a surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant in Europe and the US.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index declined 1.8 per cent to hit a two-week low in early deals.
Oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell fell nearly 2.5 per cent each after crude prices dropped $2 a barrel, while industrial metal miners lost 2.5 percent due to weakness in copper prices.
The domestically focused mid-cap index fell 2.1 per cent, with the travel and leisure sector leading the declines with a 3.2 per cent drop.
The fall was recorded after reports British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Cabinet were urged by the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance to tighten restrictions.
Sir Patrick is said to have given a warning that new measures are needed as soon as possible to stop the National Health Service being overwhelmed. Around 10 ministers are understood to be opposed to new measures, including Mr Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
On Monday morning, Dominic Raab, Britain’s Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, refused to rule out more restrictions between now and Christmas.
He said so far 12 people who tested positive for Omicron have died in the UK while there are 85 people in hospital with the strain.
He said Britons would have a “much better Christmas than last year” because of the high rate of adults who are vaccinated and the swift moving booster campaign.
However, he stopped short of ruling out restrictions on household mixing.
“A lot of the modelling which is being thrown around is the worst case scenario which of course we are duty-bound to consider,” he told Sky News.
“But we ultimately come back to this point, you have to test the data in real time against real cases and see that lag between the spread of cases, hospitalisations and what does it mean for severity in terms of, tragically, the number of deaths.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people should use their own judgement when deciding what gatherings to attend.
“Some common sense caution is well-advised but people will make that judgement based on their own circumstances, who they’re mixing with,” he said.
But he stopped short of saying new restrictions were around the corner, adding: “I’m not going to trail things where decisions haven’t been made.”
Standard Chartered fell 1.9 per cent after the Bank of England fined it £46.55 million ($61.51 million) for misreporting its liquidity position to the regulator and for failings in its controls.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
TO%20CATCH%20A%20KILLER
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDamian%20Szifron%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shailene%20Woodley%2C%20Ben%20Mendelsohn%2C%20Ralph%20Ineson%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
ORDER OF PLAY ON SHOW COURTS
Centre Court - 4pm (UAE)
Gael Monfils (15) v Kyle Edmund
Karolina Pliskova (3) v Magdalena Rybarikova
Dusan Lajovic v Roger Federer (3)
Court 1 - 4pm
Adam Pavlasek v Novak Djokovic (2)
Dominic Thiem (8) v Gilles Simon
Angelique Kerber (1) v Kirsten Flipkens
Court 2 - 2.30pm
Grigor Dimitrov (13) v Marcos Baghdatis
Agnieszka Radwanska (9) v Christina McHale
Milos Raonic (6) v Mikhail Youzhny
Tsvetana Pironkova v Caroline Wozniacki (5)
Armies of Sand
By Kenneth Pollack (Oxford University Press)
The Kites
Romain Gary
Penguin Modern Classics
Brief scores:
Toss: India, opted to field
Australia 158-4 (17 ov)
Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24
India 169-7 (17 ov)
Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22
Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method
UK%20record%20temperature
%3Cp%3E38.7C%20(101.7F)%20set%20in%20Cambridge%20in%202019%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
Kill%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nikhil%20Nagesh%20Bhat%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Lakshya%2C%20Tanya%20Maniktala%2C%20Ashish%20Vidyarthi%2C%20Harsh%20Chhaya%2C%20Raghav%20Juyal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.5%2F5%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Most wanted allegations
- Benjamin Macann, 32: involvement in cocaine smuggling gang.
- Jack Mayle, 30: sold drugs from a phone line called the Flavour Quest.
- Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
- Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
- Calvin Parris, 32: accused of buying cocaine from Naveed and selling it on.
- John James Jones, 31: allegedly stabbed two people causing serious injuries.
- Callum Michael Allan, 23: alleged drug dealing and assaulting an emergency worker.
- Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
- Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
- Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a £60,000 watch.
- James ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
- Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
