The Bank of England’s intervention in the UK government debt market was expected to cost £65 billion, with £5 billion in bond buying every day for a further 13 days.
Initial details of the size of the operation provided the main talking point in dealing rooms across London and beyond, while the former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said the government’s tax cuts were “working at some cross purposes” with the monetary policy being run out of Threadneedle Street.
London’s FTSE 100 fell further and a global wave of selling reached Wall Street markets, where big-name tech stocks were among the fallers. The pound found support -- rising 0.9% to $1.0979 -- and the yield on benchmark 10-year UK government debt stayed nearer 4% than 5% after the BoE’s dramatic action stopped the slide in the price of the debt.
