22 January 2021 | 08:35am
StockMarketWire.com - News that UK borrowing hit £34.1 billion in December 2020, the third-highest borrowing in any month since monthly records began in 1993, weighed heavily on UK markets, which opened lower.
Meanwhile, the latest figures showed mixed retail sales figures, with a 0.3% increase in retail sales volumes in December when compared with the previous month, helped by a rebound in sales at clothing stores, but a record annual decline in sales volumes of 25% for clothing stores in 2020 when compared with 2019.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.3%, or 17.99 points, to 6,697.43, while the FTSE 250 was also 0.3% lower to 20,740.21.
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline was buoyed 0.2% to £13.66 on the announcement that ViiV Healthcare, which it majority owns, has received US regulatory approval for its HIV treatment regime Cabenuva.
22 January 2021 | 07:17am
StockMarketWire.com - IT provider Kainos lifted its outlook on full-year performance amid ongoing momentum. The continued momentum in our business has driven a strong trading performance and we therefore expect results for the year ending 31 March 2021 to be ahead of current market consensus expectations, the company said. Looking ahead, our robust pipeline, strong balance sheet and significant contracted backlog underpins our confidence in our outlook, it added.
Results for the full year ending 31 March 2021 will be published on 24 May 2021. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com
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