Shares in West End landlord Shaftesbury dropped to a two-week low today after its full-year results laid bare the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company saw the value of its property portfolio fall by about a fifth to £3.1bn in the year to the end of September, with almost all of the erosion taking place since the coronavirus outbreak. The full-year loss was almost £700m.
Shaftesbury shares dropped by 2.6% during trading and closed at 534.5p.
The day’s top property climber was online estate agency Purplebricks, shares in which jumped by almost 18% to 89p, their highest since the start of September.
The company’s half-year results, covering the six months to the end of October, showed instructions rising by a fifth since lockdown restrictions were eased in May. The management team expects full-year earnings to beat forecasts.
The FTSE 100 ended the day at 6.513, a drop of 0.3%. The FTSE 250 stood at 19,852, up by roughly 0.5%.
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