{"id":809482,"date":"2026-10-21T08:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809482\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T08:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:28:12","slug":"markets-live-london-opens-lower-as-inflation-climbs-above-forecasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809482\/","title":{"rendered":"MARKETS LIVE: London opens lower as inflation climbs above forecasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MARKETS<\/a> MARKETS LIVE: London opens lower as inflation climbs above forecasts Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock <\/p>\n

FTSE 100 falls 0.2% to 10,708 <\/p>\n

Inflation climbs above forecasts <\/p>\n

Government borrowing reaches \u00a324.5 billion <\/p>\n

Oil shares limit losses <\/p>\n

8.15am BST: Rate concerns weigh on London <\/p>\n

London stocks opened lower after UK inflation accelerated more sharply than expected, strengthening expectations that the Bank of England will raise interest rates in November. <\/p>\n

The FTSE 100 fell 25 points, or 0.2%, to 10,708, while the FTSE 250 declined 51 points, or 0.2%, to 24,314. <\/p>\n

The FTSE 350 and All-Share also lost 0.2%, while the AIM All-Share dropped 0.4%. <\/p>\n

Consumer price inflation rose to 3.5% in September from 3.1% in August, exceeding the 3.4% forecast as higher motor fuel, airfare and entertainment prices increased pressure on household budgets. <\/p>\n

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, increased to 2.8% from 2.6%, while services inflation climbed to 3.7%. <\/p>\n

Government borrowing also exceeded expectations at \u00a324.5 billion in September as debt interest payments reached a record for the month, adding to the pressure on Chancellor John Healey before next week’s Budget. <\/p>\n

Energy shares provided the strongest support after oil prices resumed their advance, with Ithaca Energy climbing 4%, BP gaining 2% and Shell adding almost 1%. <\/p>\n

Brent crude rose about 2% to $110.60 a barrel, while the government’s approval of Shell’s Jackdaw gas project provided an additional positive catalyst for the sector. <\/p>\n

Technology-linked shares also recovered from Tuesday’s sell-off as Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust gained 1.5%, Computacenter rose 1.1% and Polar Capital<\/a> Technology Trust added 1%. <\/p>\n

ConvaTec and Admiral Group were among the other blue-chip risers, advancing about 1% each. <\/p>\n

7.00 am BST: London eyes cautious rebound <\/p>\n

London stocks are expected to open slightly higher as investors await UK inflation and borrowing figures that could influence expectations for the Bank of England’s November interest-rate decision. <\/p>\n

The FTSE 100 is called around 14 points higher after finishing Tuesday down 0.3% at 10,733, while December futures were little changed at 10,773 shortly before 7 am. <\/p>\n

Economists expect annual consumer-price inflation to have accelerated to 3.4% in September from 3.1% in August, reinforcing concerns that the Bank may need to raise interest rates despite subdued economic growth. <\/p>\n

Public-sector borrowing figures are also due, with the deficit forecast at approximately \u00a323.9 billion ahead of Chancellor John Healey’s first Budget. <\/p>\n

Wall Street provided a broadly supportive lead as strong company results lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1% and the S&P 500 0.3%, although renewed caution towards expensive technology shares left the Nasdaq virtually unchanged. <\/p>\n

Asian markets were mixed as technology shares rebounded from Tuesday’s rout, with South Korea’s Kospi gaining about 3% and Japan’s Nikkei rising around 1%, while Hong Kong and mainland Chinese shares edged lower. <\/p>\n

Australia’s ASX 200 closed broadly unchanged at 8,813 after trading within a narrow range. <\/p>\n

Oil prices resumed their advance amid continuing uncertainty over Middle East supplies, with Brent crude rising 1.7% to about $110.60 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate adding 1.6% to $99.30. <\/p>\n

Gold was little changed near $4,138 an ounce, while silver fell about 1% and copper remained broadly flat. <\/p>\n

Sterling traded near $1.334 before the inflation release, while Bitcoin strengthened above $82,000. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARKETS LIVE: London opens lower as inflation climbs above forecasts Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock FTSE 100…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11456,84,273,1294,4176,5555,1086,13908,5467,4377,1891,4517,4174,4769,4655,4204,4762,5556,5557,3356,5042,474,13909,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-809482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-401k","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-economy","tag-finance","tag-financial-information","tag-investing","tag-investment-tools","tag-investor","tag-market-news","tag-mortgage","tag-mutual-funds","tag-personal-finance","tag-quote","tag-real-estate","tag-retirement","tag-stock","tag-stock-research","tag-stock-valuation","tag-stocks","tag-suze-orman","tag-tax","tag-track-portfolio","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}