Central bank boss helps bulls return

The bulls were back out in force – after a wobble on Tuesday – as optimism swept markets, building on strong growth from earlier in the week.

Soothing words from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey to MPS, following similar moves from US Fed chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday, also helped.

The FTSE 100 closed the day up 64.93 points, or 1.08 per cent, to 6,067.16.

David Madden, financial analyst at CMC Markets UK, explained: “As governments slowly unwind their lockdown restrictions, that should equate to an increase in economic activity. In recent weeks, we have broadly seen an improvement in economic indicators from countries that have reopened elements of their economies, and dealers are hopeful the trend will continue.

“On Monday, global stocks were given an extra lift when Moderna said the first phase of their trials for a potential c ovid -19 vaccine were positive. Since then, there have been questions over whether the study provided enough information, so some of the optimism surrounding that topic has faded.”

On the economic front, Bailey told the Treasury Select Committee it would be “foolish” to rule out cutting interest rates below zero and confirmed policymakers are actively reviewing the bank’s options to help see the economy through coronavirus.

The pound was flat by market close, having recovered from earlier in the day, at $1.225. Against the euro a pound was down 0.5 per cent at €1.116 on the back of decent consumer confidence data from the Eurozone.

In company news, Rolls-royce

announced plans to cut at least 9,000 jobs amid the continuing coronavirus crisis, with UK factories set to be hardest hit. Shares closed up 6.1p to 273.7p.

Marks and spencer wowed investors with

a thorough plan on how it intends to recover, including longer-term plans to cut back on the committees and layers of management that have previously slowed the business. Shares ended the day up 9.24p at 95.04p.

A class action lawsuit against Aviva sent shares down 0.5p at 239p, as policyholders revealed they are taking the firm and rival QBE to court over policies not paid out over the coronavirus crisis. A similar suit was launched against Hiscox earlier in the week.