BoE rate decision today; FTSE 100 opens higher

Investing.com – The Bank of England is expected to cut rates today. Nationwide house prices were slightly better than forecasted.

U.K. equities started mixed on Thursday, with falls in Banks, Travel & Leisure and Media; and rises in Aerospace & Defense, General Retailers and Automobiles & Parts sectors.

At the market open in London, the FTSE 100 Index increased 0.13%. The FTSE 250 Index was mixed and the FTSE 350 Index climbed. The FTSE 250 was slightly down with a 0.07% fall, while the FTSE 350 was up by 0.13%.

Top Gainers:

• Rolls-Royce (LON:RR) Holdings: Rose 7.87% or 35.40 points to 485.00
• Next PLC (LON:NXT): Increased 8.33% or 756.0 points to 9,830.0
• Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN): Climbed 8.17% or 91.76 points to 1,214.76

Top Losers:

• Schroders (LON:SDR): Declined 6.98% or 27.4 points to 365.4
• Melrose Industries (LON:MRON): Fell 4.18% 24.60 points to 564.20
• HSBC (LON:HSBA): Dropped 2.80% or 19.70 points to 684.57

Investing.com visitors also have access to the full list of top FTSE 100 Gainers and FTSE 100 Losers, updated today in real-time.

In Commodities Trading:

• Gold Futures for December delivery climbed 15.70 points to 2,488.70 a troy ounce.
• Crude Oil for September delivery iincreased 0.64 points to 78.55 a barrel.
• October Brent Oil Contract rose 0.88% or 0.71 points to 81.55 a barrel.

Currency Markets:

• GBP/USD started Thursday at 1.2791 after testing above 1.28 throughout the week. .
• EUR/GBP is stable at 0.84.
• The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 104.010.

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