FTSE 100 on back foot, car production stalls

Headlines from the Proactive UK newsroom.

The FTSE 100 is on the back foot as the ongoing spat between the US and China pre-occupies investors. The blue-chip index shed 61 points to 6,157.

Britain’s car industry produced just 197 cars in April, according to the last trade figures. That was a 99.7% decline on this time last year and the lowest monthly output since the second world war.

But it’s not just Britain’s car industry under pressure. French giant Renault is cutting 15,000 jobs worldwide to save €2bn to cope with the coronavirus-inspired sales slump with around 4,600 job cuts in France.

, the UK’s largest company, however, goes from strength to strength. Results from the latest trial for Tagrisso, its treatment for a common form of lung cancer, showed it had kept 89% of patients alive and disease-free after two years.

Tiziana Life Sciences () says two poster presentations at a top medical conference underline the potential of its breast cancer prediction technology StemPrintER. The poster highlights its superiority over the market leader.

SIMEC Atlantis Energy () has started a 28-day pre-application consultation for the Uskmouth waste-to-energy power project in Wales. The consultation will run from June 1 to June 29.

Catenae Innovation () has teamed up with north-east occupational health and wellness business, Newcastle Premier Health, which will provide its know-how to the group’s Cov-ID project. Cov-ID records an individual’s coronavirus test status through a mobile app.