CT: FTSE breaks above 6,000 as pound wobbles on MPC minutes
Britain’s FTSE 100 stock index broke above the 6,000 mark on Wednesday, following gains on Wall Street and in Asia, as sterling wobbled after Bank of England policymakers maintained their split on hiking rates.
By 11:30 am, the benchmark index of blue-chip shares had gained 2.02%, or 119 points, to 6,016 and the Mid-250 index had improved 1.29%, or 150 points, to 11,724.
Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index, pointed out that the gains came as traders bought back into commodity stocks after ‘having seen the price of metals and oil gain over 1% and on bullish results from technology bellwether Intel and Yahoo last night.’
He added: ‘Last night’s earnings from across the pond have helped increase demand for European equities and convince investors to buy back into the recent debt fear induced price dips.’
