Britain's mid-cap index climbed for the third straight session on Tuesday on hopes of a speedy recovery from a coronavirus-fuelled recession, while more UK firms moved to shore up cash reserves to ride out the slump.

The domestically focussed FTSE 250 rose 0.6%, boosted by digital payments solutions provider Network which jumped 9.4% after Morgan Stanley raised its rating to "overweight" from "equal weight".

The blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 0.8% after earlier jumping more than 1%.

Both indexes had made their strongest gains in more than a month in the previous session, powered by positive data from an early-stage trial of a coronavirus vaccine.

Money markets have ramped up expectations the UK could cut interest rates below zero for the first time amid a surge in jobless claims to 1996-highs and forecasts of the worst recession in 300 years.

Meanwhile, evidence of the business damage from the pandemic continues to pile up, with tobacco group Imperial Brands Plc sliding 6.5% on plans to cut its dividend by a third and forecasting a bigger hit from the crisis in the second half of the year. The world's largest caterer Compass Group fell 3.4% as it sought to raise 2 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) in a share sale to reduce debt and help it cope with the coronavirus crisis

Insurer Beazley Plc jumped 7.8% as it raised 247 million pounds ($302 million) in fresh capital.