The FTSE 100 recovered after initial drop this morning, as UK reaches new trade deal with Australia

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The FTSE 100 dropped first thing today after Boris Johnson announced a delay in lifting Covid-19 restrictions yesterday evening, but recovered and is up 0.44%, reaching 7,178.70, as details of an Australia-UK trade deal are expected to be announced.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said results from its trial assessing its Covid-19 vaccine, AZD7442, didn't meet the primary goal of preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in people recently exposed to the Covid-19 virus.

Equipment rental company Ashtead lifted its dividend after reporting a 1% fall in annual profit as a return to revenue growth in the final quarter of the fiscal year, helped soften the pandemic impact.

Homebuilder Bellway reported 'strong' sales demand and said it expected selling price to continue to rise. For the period from 1 February to 6 June 2021, reservations per week increased 51.3% to 239 from 158 last year.

Online fashion retail Boohoo reported a jump in revenue in the first quarter of the year, led by strong UK and US growth.

For the three months to 31 May 2021, revenue increased 32% to £486.1 million year-on-year.

Digital transformation company Kin and Carta lifted its outlook on annual performance following a strong return to growth amid accelerating demand for digital transformation.