The FTSE 100 dipped by 0.5% on Monday as news of the Prime Minister’s speech leaked through the media. It appears as though investors will have to exercise patience as the lifting of lockdown measures could be more gradual than first anticipated.

“Despite some disappointment at the likely pace of reopening for different industry sectors, we may only be talking a matter of months and investors should really be looking much further into the future,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. 

“Investor sentiment should improve once the first lockdown restrictions start to be eased and that’s also the case for companies as well. You should expect to see a pick-up in recruitment for sectors that have sailed through the crisis such as technology and healthcare,” Mould added. 

Elsewhere, copper and bitcoin continue to soar, while Finsbury Food and Dechra announced their financial results.

FTSE 100 movers

Flutter Entertainment (4.35), International Consolidated Airlines (2.37%) and Evraz (2.10%) led the way on the FTSE 100 on Monday morning. 

The bottom three companies consisted of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (-4.23%), Avast (-3.28%) and Ocado (-3.28%), the top three biggest fallers at lunchtime on Monday.

Copper

Copper shot up on Monday by over 3%, moving above the $9,000 per tonne mark for the first time in nearly a decade. The news follows a recent rally of the brown metal. The base metal is now 10% lower than its peak of $10,190 a tonne, reached in February 2011.

Dechra

Dechra (LON:DPH) has announced a 22% increase in group revenue to £299m for the second half of 2020. This figure is up from £248.5m the year before.

Finsbury Food

Finsbury Food Group (LON:FIF) posted a fall in revenue of 4% to £152m on Monday. This followed an increase in revenue of 4.7% to £159.5m recorded the previous year.