Stocks in London rallied on Wednesday amid a calmer day on bond markets, supported by figures showing the UK services sector grew at its fastest rate since April 2024.
The FTSE 100 index closed up 61.30 points, or 0.7%, at 9,177.99. The FTSE 250 ended 150.18 points higher, or 0.7%, at 21,313.07, and the AIM All-Share finished up 2.90 points – 0.4% – at 768.47.
In Europe, the Cac 40 in Paris ended up 0.9%, while the Dax 40 in Frankfurt closed 0.5% higher.
The yield on UK 30-year government bonds fell to 5.61% on Wednesday from 5.71% at the time of the London equities close on Tuesday, while the yield on the 10-year bond narrowed to 4.75% from 4.81%.
The moves help ease some of the immediate pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves who set the date for her autumn Budget at November 26.
She acknowledged the economy is “not working well enough” and promised a “tight grip” on spending in her Budget, amid speculation about tax rises to plug a hole in the Government’s finances.
Ms Reeves said she had asked the Office for Budget Responsibility to prepare an independent forecast on the late November date to accompany the Budget.
Speaking to the House of Commons Treasury Committee, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said: “I do think it’s important not to focus on the 30-year bond rate… it is actually not a number that is being used for funding.”
He said that despite “dramatic commentary” he would not “exaggerate” the cost of government borrowing.
Mr Bailey said his main concern regarding the economy was the downside risks for the labour market.
In addition, he said there is “considerably more doubt” about how quickly and deeply the Bank can cut rates.
The pound rose to 1.3448 dollars late on Wednesday afternoon in London, compared with 1.3389 at the equities close on Tuesday. The euro firmed to 1.1679 dollars, against 1.1659. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at 147.95 compared with 148.20.
In better news for the Chancellor, the UK service sector grew in August at the fastest rate since April 2024, as output and new work climbed, a report from S&P Global showed.
The S&P Global UK services purchasing managers’ business activity index rose to 54.2 points in August from 51.8 in July, topping the flash reading of 53.6 released late last month.
“August data highlights a welcome acceleration of output growth and a swift rebound in order books after July’s dip, leaving the UK service economy on a much stronger footing as the end of summer comes into view,” said Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the PMI signals growth close to potential, putting the Monetary Policy Committee in a tricky position, given that inflation is heading to double the 2% target shortly.
“The PMI suggests that rate setters will have to keep policy on hold for the rest of this year at least, as growth running around potential will fail to create the spare capacity needed to bring persistent wage and price inflation down,” he added.
In New York, markets were mixed after Tuesday’s hefty falls. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4%, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.8% higher.
Alphabet rose 9.5% and Apple 2.3% after a US antitrust ruling on Tuesday which rejected the US government’s demand that Alphabet sell its Chrome web browser was seen as a big win for the Google parent and the iPhone maker.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.22%, narrowed from 4.28% on Tuesday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.91%, lowered from 4.98%.
Data showed the number of job openings in the US surprisingly fell in July.
The number of job openings amounted to 7.181 million in July, falling from 7.357 million in June and 7.504 million 12 months earlier. The reading fell short of the FactSet-cited consensus of a rise to 7.373 million.
On London’s FTSE 100, Ashtead rose 0.8% as it raised cash flow guidance and stuck with its 4% rental revenue growth view for the current financial year.
The London-based industrial equipment hire company reported a pretax profit of 511.6 million dollars for the first quarter that ended July 31, falling 6.0% from 544.4 million dollars the year before.
Ashtead expects free cash flow between 2.2 billion and 2.5 billion dollars for the current financial year, compared with prior guidance for 2.0 billion to 2.3 billion dollars.
Chief executive Brendan Horgan said results were “solid” with revenues, profits and free cash flow “in line with our expectations as we continue to take advantage of secular tailwinds and the structural progression of our industry”.
On the FTSE 250, Hilton Food plunged 17% after it said a shortage of white fish prompted “significant” raw material inflation and softer UK demand, contributing to a drop in half-year profitability.
The Huntingdon-based food packaging company reported pre-tax profit of £24.3 million for the 26 weeks that ended June 29, falling 4.7% from £25.5 million the year before.
Weaker UK seafood demand has been driven by quota cuts leading to “significant” raw material inflation, the firm said.
Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining rose 8.1% and 3.6% respectively, reflecting the latest gains in the gold price.
JPMorgan thinks the gold price could reach 4,000 dollars per ounce by the second quarter of 2026 and 4,250 dollars by the end of next year.
Gold climbed to 3,565.82 dollars an ounce on Wednesday against 3,511.91 on Tuesday.
A barrel of Brent traded at 67.62 dollars late on Wednesday afternoon, down from 68.81 on Tuesday, after a Reuters report that the Opec+ group will consider a fresh increase to production when it meets over the weekend.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo, up 155.0 pence at 2,074.0p, Endeavour Mining, up 96.0p at 2,760.0p, Babcock International, up 34.0p at 1,066.0p, Antofagasta, up 66.0p at 2,197.0p, and IAG, up 10.2p at 391.0p.
The biggest fallers were Pearson, down 38.5p at 1,047.0p, BT Group, down 3.6p at 206.1p, BP, down 6.8p at 427.3p, Airtel Africa, down 3.4p at 215.2p and Shell, down 36.5p at 2,694.0p.
Contributed by Alliance News
