London stocks were still in the red by midday on Thursday as investors waded through a deluge of corporate news and continued to digest the Spring Budget, but Virgin Money surged on takeover news.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 7,660.15.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The dust is already settling on a UK Budget which offered a sweet rush of optimism for consumer-focused stocks, and now some of that positivity is ebbing away with the FTSE 250 dipping in early trade before making up ground.
“Reality appears to be sinking in that although the cuts to National Insurance may fire up some discretionary spending power the fiscal drag of freezing income tax thresholds will counter the effect.”
Figures released earlier by Halifax showed that house prices rose for the fifth month in a row in February.
Prices were up 0.4% on the month following a 1.2% jump in January. This marked the smallest…
