LONDON: U.K. stocks rose for a third day as investors await details of Britain’s 2015 budget.
The FTSE 100 Index added 0.3 percent to 6,859.67 at 8:54 a.m. in London. The benchmark has advanced 1.8 percent this week, rebounding from its worst weekly drop this year. The FTSE All-Share Index climbed 0.3 percent today while Ireland’s ISEQ Index rose 0.7 percent.
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will deliver his budget today before voters in the European Union’s third biggest economy head to the polls May 7.
Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron head into the election with cheaper oil putting money in the pockets of consumers, unemployment at a six-year low and the return of real wage growth for the first time since the financial crisis. Britain’s economy will grow 2.6 percent this year and 2.4 percent in 2016, a Bloomberg survey shows.
