By Purvi Agarwal and Pranav Kashyap
(Reuters) -London stocks closed higher on Wednesday thanks to a boost from precious metal miners, while hawkish comments by Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill eased bets on an interest rate cut in August.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed 0.7% higher, after logging its worst day in nearly a month on Tuesday.
Also capping gains for the dollar earners was a rise in the pound as BoE’s Pill focused on strong price pressures in the economy and said the timing of a first interest rate cut was an “open question,” addressing a think tank in London.
Investors are now expecting roughly a 50% chance of an initial rate cut in August, down from 62% before Pill’s speech. The yield on Britain’s two-year gilt hit a session high of 4.125% post the speech.
On Monday, outgoing BoE Monetary Policy Committee member Jonathan Haskel said he was not yet ready to vote for rate cuts. Catherine Mann, another external MPC…
