By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index stayed around
the flat line on Thursday after the Bank of England as expected
made no changes to its monetary policy. Meanwhile, the Office for
Budget Responsibility more than doubled its growth forecast for the
country for 2013.
The benchmark traded slightly lower at 6,505.03 after closing in
negative territory for a fourth straight day on Wednesday.
The U.K.'s central bank was in the spotlight as it offered no
surprises at its December policy meeting, leaving the size of its
bond-buying program unchanged and holding its key lending rate at a
record low of 0.5%, where it has stood since March 2009. The
central bank's Monetary Policy Committee left its asset purchases,
the centerpiece of its quantitative-easing strategy, at 375 billion
pounds ($614 billion). The minutes from the December meeting will
be published on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
The European Central Bank also announced no rate change at its
monthly meeting.
Also on Thursday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne
delivered his Autumn Statement on the economy to members of
parliament, including the latest forecast from the Office for
Budget Responsibility. The OBR more than doubled its growth
forecast for the U.K. for 2013 to 1.4% from an earlier forecast of
0.6% and raised the outlook for 2014 to 2.4% from 1.8%.
Among notable movers in London, miners posted some of the
biggest gains, building on advances seen on Wednesday. Shares of
Vedanta Resources PLC added 2.7%, Fresnillo PLC gained 1.3% and Rio
Tinto PLC (RIO) picked up 1.8%.
Outside the main index, Drax Group PLC rose 3.2% after J.P.
Morgan Cazenove lifted the utility firm to overweight from
neutral.
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