FTSE up before interest rate decision

Thursday 4th December 2008

After spending much of Wednesday in the doldrums, traders in London this morning continued a last minute rally from last night, ahead of an expected Bank of England interest rate cut.

At 9:13 GMT the FTSE 100 was up 1.28 per cent - or 53.46 points - to 4,223.42.

This followed a 2.05 per cent jump on the Dow in New York last night – again largely posted after a last ditch rally.

In London there was a mixed bag of winners and losers.

Experian was up 6.38 per cent – despite announcing job losses – while builders merchant Wolseley gained 5.74 per cent.

Commodity stocks BG Group and Eurasian rose 5.19 per cent and 5.02 per cent respectively, while Guinness-brewer Diageo gained 4.69 per cent

3i dropped 4.35 per cent, while Invensys was down 2.62 per cent.

London Stock Exchange continued its recent travails with a 2.51 per cent fall.

On the currency markets sterling was up a touch after large falls overnight.

£1 is now worth $1.45 and €1.15, making €1 worth 0.86p.

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