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FTSE 100 Live: ITV and Sky takeover chatter; House prices rise

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The City PM Live Blog
The City PM FTSE 100 liveblog with your top market stories.

Good morning from the City PM liveblog team.

Yesterday, the Bank of England cut rates in a 5-4 decision with Governor Andrew Bailey playing decider.

Policymakers at the Bank said the crunch decision weighed up contractions in the jobs market, which could lower inflation levels, and high inflation expectations of around 4 per cent among households in recent months, which would have the adverse effect. 

But it came amid a split decision of hawks and doves, who are divided over the Bank’s monetary direction.

Swati Dhingra and Alan Taylor struck out at the hawks with the former the bank rate should have already been lower to account for “lags” in its transmission to the real economy.

However, Bailey played it cautious, stating: “Rather than cutting Bank Rate now, I would prefer to wait and see if the durability in disinflation is confirmed in upcoming economic developments this year.”

The FTSE 100 jumped as it digested the news but failed to make it out of the red, ending the session on a 0.42 per cent slump.

It was a good day for bank shares though, after rumours of a tax on the sector appeared to be squashed.

It follows fierce lobbying from bankers with the industry body warning London lender’s total tax rate rose 0.6 per cent to 46.4 per cent in 2025.

This dwarfed that of overseas rivals and has spiked concerns about the City’s attractiveness on the global stage. In New York, the tax rate remained unchanged year-on-year at 27.9 per cent, almost two-thirds below that in London.

Natwest closed the day up 2.11 per cent to 600.83p, whilst Lloyds was up 1.5 per cent to 90.94p.

Here’s a summary of our top stories from yesterday: