LONDON: London stocks outperformed European counterparts Wednesday, with the FTSE 100 moving back towards the 7,000 point mark, but the pound fell to fresh lows against the dollar as the Bank of England’s meeting minutes showed a unanimous decision to keep interest rates on hold in March.
Meanwhile, the presentation of the last UK government budget before the May election had a big impact on some individual London stocks and sectors, while investors also awaited the conclusion of the US Federal Reserve’s two-day rate setting meeting.
The FTSE 100 closed up 1.6% at 6,945.20, finally recovering all the heavy losses made on Tuesday last week, when the blue-chip index fell 2.5%. The FTSE 250 closed up 0.9% at 17,363.74, a new record high close for the mid-cap index, and the AIM All-Share closed flat at 715.52.
In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris closed up 0.1%, and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended down 0.5%.
Wall Street was also lower at the close of European Stocks Markets, with the DJIA down 0.6%, the S&P 500 down 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.3%.
The UK jobless rate declined in the three months to January and the employment rate hit the highest since 1971, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday. The ILO jobless rate fell to 5.7% in three months to January from 6.0% in the quarter ended October. In the same period of last year, the unemployment rate was 7.2%. The expected rate was 5.6%.
