The London markets made gains after traders welcomed the Chancellor’s latest financial support but closed behind morning highs after US caution weighed on global stocks.
The latest US services data disappointed traders, with a flat reading for February missing expectations of a small uplift in activity.
Nevertheless, it was not enough to drag the FTSE too significantly, as the extension of furlough particularly helped to buoy trading.
The FTSE 100 closed 61.72 points, or 0.93%, higher at 6,675.47 on Wednesday.
Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said: “The FTSE, and the rest of the European markets, were a long way off their morning highs post-US open. What started as a very strong session – continuing the rebound that opened the month – turned into a bit of a mixed bag as Wednesday wore on.”
The Dow Jones opened lower after the Institute for Supply Management’s services PMI came in at 55.3.
The other major European markets were particularly cautious at the close, with the recent bullish run losing pace this week against London.
The German Dax increased by 0.25% and the French Cac moved 0.35% higher.
Sterling made gains despite a firmer dollar as traders were optimistic about the UK’s potential economic recovery.
The pound increased by 0.04% versus the US dollar to 1.396 and was up 0.22% against the euro at 1.156.
Housebuilders like Redrow, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments moved higher after the Chancellor confirmed a stamp duty extension and new deposit guarantee scheme.
In company news, Hiscox plummeted in value after the insurance giant said Covid-19 claims would drag it to a $268.5 million (£193m) loss.
The company admitted its court wrangle with businesses making claims over the impact of the pandemic meant it “suffered some brand damage” this year. Shares closed 116.2p lower at 865.2p.
UK technology firm Micro Focus soared after it signed a commercial agreement with Amazon’s cloud platform arm.
Shares moved 59.7p higher to 498.3p at the end of trading after it said the two will work to use Micro Focus technology for customers looking to shift some workloads to a cloud-based production environment.Cybersecurity firm Avast slipped after reporting solid improvements in revenues and earnings, closing 13.2p lower at 451p.
The price of oil surged after the latest EIA report showed that US oil inventories jumped by 21.5 million barrels and the consensus estimate was for a draw of more than 900,000 barrels. The price of Brent crude oil increased by 2.62% to $64.34 dollars per barrel.
The biggest risers in the FTSE 100 were Barratt Developments, up 48.4p at 732.6p; Persimmon, up 185p at 2,895p; IAG, up 13.8p at 216.5p; BT, up 8.5p at 134.4p; and Taylor Wimpey, up 9.95p at 175.85p. The biggest fallers were Avast, down 13.2p at 451p; Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, down 32p at 1,162p; Severn Trent, down 55p at 2,168p; SSE, down 31p at 1,301.5p; and National Grid, down 18p at 810.2p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here