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UK markets have bounced as the country prepares for a further extension to the lockdown period and the number of infections globally is reported to have exceeded 2 million.
The UK government is set to announce that the lockdown will remain in place for a further three weeks, at the same time that the US is considering reopening some states.
The FTSE 100 has recovered from yesterday's falls, climbing 0.8%, or 44.29 points higher, to 5,640.31, while the FTSE 250 is nudging 1.4%, or up 217.75 points, at 15,565.20.
Budget airline EasyJet has soared 9.2% to 660.40p as it expects the first-half headline pre-tax loss to be narrower this year amid efforts to cut costs and revealed that bookings for winter were 'well ahead' of the equivalent point last year.
Rentokil Initial is buoyed 3.4% to 405.70p as it reported that group ongoing revenue rose by 7.2% and ongoing operating profit grew slightly ahead of revenue in the three months to 31 March 2020.
It also confirmed it has drawn down funds under the government's Covid funding facility and, as a result now has £1.2bn of cash.
Barratt Developments has gained 5.8% in early trading to 447.95p following the news that the housebuilder is in the process of furloughing around 85% of its employees as part of a series of measures to cut costs.
Dunelm has been buoyed 4.4% to 861.50p on the news that it has seen a high level of online demand after resuming its online business.
Schroders has climbed 2.4% to £24.67 after group chief executive Peter Harrison pledged not to furlough any employees or enact any redundancy programmes.
Meanwhile, its total assets under management fell to £470.5bn at the end of the first quarter of 2020, down from £500.2bn at 31 December 2019.
Aveva has risen 1.9% to £35.61 as the engineering and industrial software maker said it expected revenue to grow 9%, but warned that revenue for fiscal 2021 would be hurt by expected reductions in capital expenditure in the oil and gas sector.
Royal Dutch Shell is down 0.2% to £13.13 after announcing it would 'go further' with its responsible investment ambitions, by aiming to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050.