LONDON: UK’s FTSE 100 rose on Friday after dovish comments from Bank of England Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden on inflation boosted bets on monetary policy easing by the UK central bank in 2024, while Middle East tensions continued to sour sentiment.
Both of Britain’s main equity gauges remained in the red for most of the session, but the benchmark FTSE 100 rebounded 0.2% in the last hour of trading. The midcap FTSE 250 FTMC was down 0.3%.
Still, British stocks had their worst week in three months.
UK’s 2-year gilt yields dropped to the lowest since April 15 at 4.398% after BoE’s Ramsden said on Friday that inflation could hold around the central bank’s 2% target for the next three years rather than rise higher later this year as set out in the BoE’s most recent forecasts.
Traders now expect the central bank to cut interest rates by 53 basis points, starting in September.
British paper and packaging group Mondi was…
