Funeral company Dignity one of the leading risers on London Stock Exchange amid coronavirus fears
Funeral company Dignity was one of the leading risers on the London Stock Exchange this morning in a bleak pointer to who investors think could do well out of the coronavirus epidemic.
Dignity was up 2.5 per cent at 333p this morning, amid a stock market rout that came despite a dramatic intervention by the US Federal Reserve last night.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “If it’s going to kill people they will do well – unfortunately that is the callous nature of financial markets.”
The FTSE 100 was down six per cent at 5,036 points and the FTSE 250 fell 11 per cent to 13,790 points.
Other splashes of green in a sea of red included supermarkets and consumer goods companies.
Dettol-maker Reckitt Benckiser rose nearly one per cent to 5,425p, while supermarket Sainsbury’s was up 1.1 per cent at 181p.
Other risers included tobacco company Imperial Brands which jumped 5.4 per cent to 1,453p this morning.
On Friday Citi and Panmure Gordon both issued buy recommendations for the cigarette-maker.
“A couple of fairly positive broker notes and that’s spilling into today because everything else is getting pounded,” Hewson said.
Gold mining company Centamin rose 1.8 per cent to 99p as investors bet that this traditional safe haven would continue to provide some value.