Companies in the UK will get an extra month to complete their half-year financial reports, in a move by regulators that acknowledges the hit to balance sheets from the Covid-19 crisis.

The Financial Conduct Authority said it will offer listed companies the temporary relief to help reduce the impact of the “challenges of corporate reporting during the coronavirus crisis”. Without the reprieve, firms would have to publish their half-yearly reviews within three months of the end of their usual half-year period — with 31 March reports, for example, falling due by 1 July.