London midday: FTSE touch higher, sterling falls after BoE holds rates as expected

London stocks were still just a touch firmer by midday on Thursday, as the Bank of England stood pat on interest rates, as widely expected.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 8,364.64, while sterling fell further against the dollar, trading down 0.3% at 1.2459.

The BoE kept rates unchanged at 5.25% for the sixth meeting in a row, even as the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that consumer price inflation eased to 3.2% in March from 3.4% in February, having hit a peak of 11.1% in October 2022.

The Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 to keep rates unchanged, with Swati Dhingra and Dave Ramsden opting for a cut to 5%. In March, the MPC voted 8-1 to keep rates on hold, with only Dhingra voting for a cut.

Governor Andrew Bailey said: "We've had encouraging news on inflation and we think it will fall close to our 2% target in the next couple of months. We need to see more evidence that inflation will stay low before we can cut interest rates. I'm optimistic that things are moving in the right direction."

In equity markets, weapons maker BAE Systems ticked a touch higher as it held annual guidance and said global geopolitical tensions should boost orders as countries increased defence spending. The group still expects sales to rise 10% to 12% above 2023's £25bn and for underlying earnings before interest and tax to be 11% to 13% higher than the £2.7bn posted last year.

Harbour Energy and broadcaster ITV were also in the black after trading updates.

On the downside, telecoms group Airtel Africa slumped after saying it was hit hard by a drop in the Nigerian naira in the year to 31 March, with a $549m negative FX headwind pushing it into the red on a pre-tax basis. The company swung to a reported pre-tax loss of $89m, from a profit of $750m the year before, while reported revenues sank 5.3% to $4.98bn.

3i Group fell despite hailing "strong" full-year results supported by resilient growth in its portfolio companies.

Hipgnosis Song Fund lost ground as Concord said it would not increase its $1.25 per share offer for the company, clearing the path for Blackstone to take it over.

HSBC, Admiral, Petershill Partners, Lancashire Holdings, SThree and Ibstock all fell as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,364.64 0.13%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,463.31 -0.14%
techMARK (TASX) 4,712.67 0.01%

FTSE 100 - Risers

JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 118.50p 1.46%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,856.00p 1.17%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 4,599.00p 1.14%
Frasers Group (FRAS) 832.00p 1.09%
Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 3,804.00p 1.06%
BP (BP.) 505.80p 1.06%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,584.00p 0.96%
BT Group (BT.A) 105.60p 0.86%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 68.08p 0.80%
Tesco (TSCO) 310.10p 0.75%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Airtel Africa (AAF) 108.90p -6.04%
3i Group (III) 2,843.00p -4.40%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 693.90p -3.73%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,721.00p -1.88%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 9,040.00p -1.26%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 882.40p -1.19%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 598.40p -1.16%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 998.20p -0.92%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 182.45p -0.84%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) 2,128.00p -0.84%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Harbour Energy (HBR) 299.50p 7.12%
North Atlantic Smaller Companies Inv Trust (NAS) 4,020.00p 2.55%
Genuit Group (GEN) 452.00p 2.38%
SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust (SEIT) 65.00p 2.36%
International Distributions Services (IDS) 287.60p 2.20%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 330.80p 1.78%
Hays (HAS) 95.70p 1.75%
Helios Towers (HTWS) 108.40p 1.69%
GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd (GCP) 76.20p 1.60%
Bankers Inv Trust (BNKR) 116.00p 1.58%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Bellevue Healthcare Trust (Red) (BBH) 140.80p -3.96%
Patria Private Equity Trust (PPET) 546.00p -3.36%
Petershill Partners (PHLL) 204.00p -2.86%
Ibstock (IBST) 148.00p -2.37%
Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited NPV (SONG) 102.20p -2.29%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 612.00p -2.24%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,661.00p -2.06%
Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 578.00p -2.03%
Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 1,112.00p -1.94%
Clarkson (CKN) 3,945.00p -1.87%