FTSE on up in wake of halt to US tech rout

London’s FTSE 100 Index jumped higher as Wall Street rebounded after its recent tech sell-off, but sterling dropped in another painful session over no-deal Brexit concerns.

The top tier closed 1.4 p er cent or 82.5 points higher at 6,012.8 thanks to a strong early session in America as bargain-hunters piled in to pick up cheaper tech stocks after Tuesday’s heavy declines.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1.9 per cent higher at the time of close in London, but experts saw little firm reason behind sudden halt to the tech rout.

Tech titans Apple, Amazon and Microsoft all made solid gains in the bounce-back following three sessions of declines.

David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “There hasn’t been any major positive news in the past 24 hours, but the turnaround in sentiment in the US tech sector has influenced the mood in Europe.

“Recently, any big sell-offs in Europe have been driven by the moves in the US tech sector, so now that some calm has been restored over there, things are on the up here.”

There were yet more falls for the pound amid mounting worries over Boris Johnson’s controversial plans to override parts of his Brexit deal with the EU.

Sterling’s wo es ramped up as Johnson faced angr y MPS over his Brexit negotiation move at Prime Minister’s Questions, sending the pound plunging by another 2.1 per cent at one stage to a six-week low of just under $1.29.

The pound later clawed back some lost ground to stand 1.2 per cent lower at $1.30 and 1.2 per cent down at €1.10.

Among stocks, drugs giant Astrazeneca was in sharp focus after it paused trials of its Covid-19 vaccine under development with the University of Oxford due to a reported side-effect in a patient in the UK.

But the group’s shares shook off the setback, rising 38p to 8,386p.

Airlines nosedived into the red once again as carriers were forced to announce further capacity cuts following the latest additions to the quarantine list.

British Airways owner International Airlines Group was 7.4p lower at 200.4p, with FTSE 250 budget rival Easyjet falling 12.6p to 584.8p.