The recent announcements by the Bank of England, reflecting a dovish stance towards monetary policy, have continued to energize the FTSE 100 on the London Stock Exchange. This, coupled with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) survey revealing a six-month high in total order book balance, has elevated market sentiment.
The FTSE 100 fluctuated between 7,961.43 and 7,882.19, marking a subtle increase from the previous closing value of 7,882.55. The benchmark currently trades at 7,920.98, which signifies a 0.49 percent rise.
With regards to the 100 constituents of the index, only 33 experienced a decrease in their overnight trading session. Phoenix Group Holdings spearheaded the gains with a 10.2-percent surge. Reckitt Benckiser Group, NatWest Group, and Vodafone Group all saw a commendable rally of more than 2 percent each. Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking Group, WPP, Airtel Africa, BT Group, and Pershing Square Holdings all increased by over 1 percent.
JD Sports Fashion faced the steepest decline at over 6 percent. Similarly, DCC, Rentokil Initial, International Consolidated Airlines Group, Halma, Convatec Group, and Frasers Group all decreased by more than 1 percent each.
The GBP/USD pair fell by 0.38 percent overnight to 1.2608, whereas the Dollar Index rose by 0.93 percent to 104.37. The sterling fluctuated between $1.2575 and $1.2675 throughout the day. This happened amid flat retail sales for February, contradicting a 3.6-percent increase in January and the predicted 0.3-percent decline.
UK bond yields witnessed a slight ease in response to the Bank of England's hints at potential rate cuts. The ten-year bond yields reduced by 0.93 percent to 3.9610 percent, fluctuating between 3.745 percent and 4.3075 percent throughout the day – a decrease from the previous 3.998 percent.
