UPDATE 2-London stocks end lower on grim post-lockdown outlook

* Persimmon , Intermediate Capital Group bottom out FTSE 100
* Virgin Money drops for second straight day after profit
slump
* Brexit trade deal can be reached, but not at any cost -
Sunak

(Updates to close)
By Devik Jain and Ambar Warrick
Nov 26 (Reuters) - British stocks fell on Thursday amid
heightened concerns over economic growth after Health Minister
Matt Hancock said more than a third of the population would
remain under tough COVID-19 restrictions at the end of a
national lockdown.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index .FTSE slipped 0.4%, with
financial and material stocks weighing the most, while the
domestically focussed mid-cap FTSE 250 .FTMC lost 0.9%, ending
at a nine-day low.
Hancock's announcement followed Finance Minister Rishi
Sunak's grim forecast on Wednesday that Britain was set for its
worst annual economic contraction in more than 300 years due to
the pandemic. Britain has Europe's highest official death toll from the
pandemic and has been hit hard by a second wave of cases, which
prompted a month-long lockdown that has severely crimped
economic activity.
"There is a tug of war between the short-term uncertainty,
what is going to be a tough winter from an economic standpoint
and the potential for a much stronger and sustained recovery, if
we get mass vaccination and the pandemic is brought under
control at some point next year," said Emmanuel Cau, head of
European equity strategy at Barclays.
While positive vaccine-related headlines have helped British
stocks gain this month, they have still underperformed global
peers due to uncertainty over Brexit negotiations, as the
end-of-year deadline for a trade deal looms.
Britain and the European Union can clinch a Brexit trade
deal and the shape of one is clear, but London will not sign up
to an accord at any cost, Finance Minister Sunak said.
Among individual movers, homebuilder Persimmon PSN.L and
fund manager Intermediate Capital Group ICP.L bottomed out the
blue-chip index.
Retail banker Virgin Money UK VMUK.L was among the biggest
weights on the mid-cap index, dropping for a second straight day
after reporting a 77% drop in its annual profit.