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London’s blue chip index ended Wednesday in the green, as easing bond yields and service sector growth helped to ease pressure on the UK chancellor. The FTSE 100 index closed up 61.30 points, 0.7%, at 9,177.99. The FTSE 250 ended 150.18 points higher, 0.7%, at 21,313.07 and the AIM All-Share finished up 2.90 points, 0.4%, at 768.47. The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.5% at 920.63, the Cboe UK 250 closed 0.5% higher at 18,636.55 and the Cboe Small Companies rose 0.2% to 17,076.19. In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris ended up 0.9%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt closed 0.5% higher. The yield on UK 30-year government bonds fell to 5.61% on Wednesday from 5.71% at the time of the London equities close on Tuesday, while the yield on the shorter-dated 10-year bond narrowed to 4.75% from 4.81%. The moves help ease some of the immediate pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves who set the date for her autumn budget at November 26. The chancellor acknowledged the economy is ‘not working well enough’ and promised a ‘tight grip’ on spending in her budget, amid speculation about tax rises to plug a hole in the government’s finances. Reeves said she had asked the fiscal watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility, OBR, to prepare an independent forecast on the late November date to accompany the budget. Speaking to the House of Commons Treasury Committee Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said: ‘I do think it’s important not to focus on the 30-year bond rate,’ because ‘it is actually not a number that is being used for funding.’ He said that despite the ‘dramatic commentary’ he wouldn’t ‘exaggerate’ the cost of government borrowing. Bailey said his main concern regarding the economy were the downside risks for the labour market. In addition, he said there is ‘considerably more doubt’ about how quickly and deeply the BoE can cut rates. The pound rose to $1.3448 late on Wednesday afternoon in London, compared to $1.3389 at the equities close on Tuesday. The euro firmed to $1.1679, against $1.1659. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at JP¥147.95 compared to JP¥148.20. In better news for the chancellor, the UK service sector grew at the fastest rate since April 2024 in August, as output and new work climbed, a report from S&P Global showed. The S&P Global UK services purchasing managers’ business activity index rose to 54.2 points in August from 51.8 in July, topping the flash reading of 53.6 released late last month. ‘August data highlights a welcome acceleration of output growth and a swift rebound in order books after July’s dip, leaving the UK service economy on a much stronger footing as the end of summer comes into view,’ said Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics said the PMI signals growth close to potential, putting the Monetary Policy Committee in a tricky position, given that inflation is heading to double the 2% target shortly. ‘The PMI suggests that rate setters will have to keep policy on hold for the rest of this year at least, as growth running around potential will fail to create the spare capacity needed to bring persistent wage and price inflation down,’ he added. In New York, markets were mixed after Tuesday’s hefty falls. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4%, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.8% higher. Alphabet rose 9.5% and Apple 2.3% after a US antitrust ruling on Tuesday which rejected the US government’s demand that Alphabet sell its Chrome web browser was seen as a big win for the Google parent and the iPhone maker. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.22%, narrowed from 4.28% on Tuesday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.91%, lowered from 4.98%. Ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payrolls figures, data showed the number of job openings in the US surprisingly fell in July. The number of job openings amounted to 7.181 million in July, falling from 7.357 million in June and 7.504 million 12 months earlier. The reading fell short of the FactSet cited consensus of a rise to 7.373 million. On London’s FTSE 100, Ashtead rose 0.8% as it raised cash flow guidance and stuck with its 4% rental revenue growth view for the current financial year. The London-based industrial equipment hire company reported a pretax profit of $511.6 million for the first quarter that ended July 31, falling 6.0% from $544.4 million the year before. Ashtead now expects free cash flow between $2.2 billion and $2.5 billion for the current financial year, compared to its prior guidance for $2.0 billion to $2.3 billion. Chief Executive Officer Brendan Horgan said results were ‘solid’ with revenues, profits and free cash flow ‘in line with our expectations as we continue to take advantage of secular tailwinds and the structural progression of our industry.’ On the FTSE 250, Hilton Food plunged 17% after it said a shortage of white fish prompted ‘significant’ raw material inflation and softer UK demand, contributing to a drop in half-year profitability. The Huntingdon, England-based food packaging company reported pretax profit of £24.3 million for the 26 weeks that ended June 29, falling 4.7% from £25.5 million the year prior. Weaker UK seafood demand has been driven by quota cuts leading to ‘significant’ raw material inflation, the firm explained. Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining rose 8.1% and 3.6% respectively reflecting the latest gains in the gold price. JPMorgan thinks the gold price could reach $4,000 per ounce by the second quarter of 2026 and $4,250 by the end of next year. Gold climbed to $3,565.82 an ounce on Wednesday against $3,511.91 on Tuesday. A barrel of Brent traded at $67.62 late Wednesday afternoon, down from $68.81 on Tuesday, after a Reuters report that the OPEC+ group will consider a fresh increase to production when it meets over the weekend. The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Fresnillo, up 155.00 pence at 2,074.00p, Endeavour Mining, up 96.00p at 2,760.00p, Babcock International, up 34.00p at 1,066.00p, Antofagasta, up 66.00p at 2,197.00p, and IAG, up 10.20p at 391.00p. The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Pearson, down 38.50p at 1,047.00p, BT Group, down 3.60p at 206.10p, BP, down 6.85p at 427.35p, Airtel Africa, down 3.40p at 215.20p and Shell, down 36.50p at 2,694.00p. Thursday’s local corporate calendar has a trading statement from electricals retailer Currys. The global economic calendar on Thursday has eurozone retail sales figures, US ADP private payrolls data and weekly jobless claims figures and a US services sector PMI. 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