18th Feb 2026 17:03
(Alliance News) - Stocks in Europe pushed higher on Wednesday, with the FTSE 100 spiking to a new record, as cooling consumer price inflation in the UK boosted Bank of England rate cut bets.
The FTSE 100 index closed up 130.01 points, 1.2%, at 10,686.18. The FTSE 250 ended up 130.62 points, 0.6%, at 23,686.44, and the AIM all-share closed up 5.13 points, 0.6%, at 811.74.
The Cboe UK 100 ended up 1.4% at 1,064.64, the Cboe UK 250 closed 0.5% higher at 20,960.57, and the Cboe small companies added 0.2% at 18,554.88.
In European equities on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris closed 0.8% higher, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended up 1.1%.
The pound was higher at USD1.3548 on Wednesday afternoon from USD1.3531 at the equities close on Tuesday. The euro stood lower at USD1.1813 from USD1.1830. Against the yen, the dollar was trading higher at JPY154.38 compared to JPY153.61.
UK consumer price inflation slowed last month, the Office for National Statistics reported.
Consumer prices rose 3.0%, as expected, slowing from a 3.4% rise in December.
"The latest inflation figures are encouraging, although they effectively turn the clock back to where we were a year ago, before the impact of Rachel Reeves' first budget and Donald Trump's trade skirmishes made their mark," said AJ Bell analyst Danni Hewson.
"For the Bank of England, the latest data could give a green light for an interest rate cut in March, with market expectation for a cut rounding off at 85% after today's release. The last time members of the [Monetary Policy Committee] met the vote was split 5-4 to hold rates steady versus a cut to 3.5%, and the plethora of recent data should be more than enough to give at least one member a good shove to the other side of the seesaw."
Hewson added: "There's growing expectation that economic conditions might be in such a way that the bank can deliver not two but three rate cuts this year, although that's far from nailed on. The bank's rate setters will be acutely aware that service sector inflation is still stubbornly high at 4.3% and January's headline rate of 3% is slightly above the bank's own forecast."
The BoE has a 2% inflation target.
Deutsche Bank analyst Sanjay Raja commented: "Perhaps in some comforting news, the disinflation path remains largely intact. Despite stronger services price momentum to start the year, we see CPI taking another big step down in spring, as some of the big administrative prices wash out of the annual rate calculation. We expect CPI to track nearer 2% by spring."
Stocks in New York were higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6%, the S&P 500 index gained 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.4% higher.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury widened to 4.08% on Wednesday from 4.05% on Tuesday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury widened slightly to 4.69% from 4.68%.
In London, Antofagasta led the FTSE 100 and jumped 11%. The stock rebounded after falling 5.7% on Tuesday.
Goldman Sachs and Bank of America raised their price targets on the stock to 4,200 pence and 4,000p respectively, while both maintained a 'buy' rating.
Mining peer Glencore added 4.8%.
Glencore shareholders will earn a huge pay cheque after an attempted takeover of the commodity trading and mining company by Rio Tinto fell apart early this month.
Releasing its 2025 financial year results that came in ahead of expectations, the Barr, Switzerland-based miner reported on Wednesday it will return USD2 billion to its shareholders.
Glencore maintained the base distribution at 10 US cents each or USD1.2 billion, and recommended a "top-up cash distribution" of 7 cents, amounting to USD800 million.
In 2025, net attributable income was USD363 million in 2025, flipped from a loss USD1.63 billion in 2024. Pretax income was USD321 million, swung from USD998 million.
Meanwhile, BAE Systems rose 2.9% as it reported higher annual profit and outlined confident growth plans, thanks to a "heightened threat environment".
The London-based defence contractor booked pretax profit of GBP2.57 billion in 2025, up from GBP2.69 billion in 2024, on revenue of GBP28.34 billion, up from GBP26.32 billion.
The company declared a final dividend of 22.8p per share, compared with 20.6p in 2024, boosting the total payout by 10% on-year to 36.3p from 33.0p. This surpassed the sell-side analyst consensus listed on BAE's website, which forecast the firm increasing its dividend 8.8% to 35.9p per share.
In 2026, the weapons maker sees sales growth ranging from 7% to 9%, against GBP30.66 billion in 2025. It expects underlying EPS to grow by 9% to 11%, and sees the same range for underlying earnings before interest and tax, compared with GBP3.32 billion in 2025.
Shares in Liberty Global were up 15% in New York and Vodafone Group closed 0.9% higher in London.
Vodafone said it is selling its 50% share of Dutch business VodafoneZiggo to its joint venture partner Liberty Global, which noted that it is also buying UK-based Substantial Group.
Denver, Colorado-based telecommunications operator Liberty Global is paying Berkshire, England-based Vodafone EUR1.0 billion in cash and a 10% interest in a new company.
The new Benelux-registered company will be called Ziggo Group. It will hold Liberty Global's interest in VodafoneZiggo and Belgian operator Telenet, both of which will continue trading under their existing brand names.
In 2027, Liberty Global plans to list the new Ziggo Group on Amsterdam's Euronext Exchange, and to spin off its 90% stake. It noted "long-term service agreements" with Vodafone to ensure VodafoneZiggo's "stability throughout the transition."
Liberty Global also reported the EUR2 billion acquisition of UK-based Substantial. It is making the purchase via nexfibre, a joint venture with Madrid-based peer Telefonica and Parisian private equity firm InfraVie Capital Partners.
Liberty Global's nexfibre is upgrading Virgin Media O2 customers to a fibre connection. nexfibre will then sell Substantial's retail business, including the YouFibre and Brsk brands, to Virgin Media O2 for GBP150 million. Virgin Media O2 is committing traffic on 4.6 million overlapping and adjacent homes, which will be combined with nexfibre and and with Substantial's network Netomnia.
This will create a "financially secure challenger" to BT Group's Openreach, "with a full fibre footprint of around 8 million premises by the end of 2027", Liberty Global said.
BT Group shares fell the most on the FTSE 100, down 2.5%.
On the FTSE 250 index, shares in Pan African Resources climbed 9.9%. It said it was on track for sustained growth, after profit multiplied in the first half thanks to "the very favourable current environment".
The Johannesburg-based gold producer's pretax profit surged to USD209.9 million, during the six months ended December 31 from USD58.8 million the year prior, with attributable profit up to USD148.0 million from USD48.2 million. Revenue more than doubled to USD487.1 million from USD189.3 million.
On the AIM market, shares in Trellus Health more than doubled as it reported a six-month contract extension with Johnson & Johnson, which is using the Trellus Elevate app for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
Trellus focuses on chronic disease management, and its tie-up with J&J was signed back in January 2025. This sees the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based pharmaceutical maker providing Trellus Elevate to patients with a J&J prescription to treat inflammatory bowel disease.
The extension is until the middle of 2026 with "the same economic terms" as the initial contract.
Brent oil was higher at USD69.62 a barrel on Wednesday afternoon from USD67.17 late Monday. Gold was up at USD5,002.90 an ounce from USD4,882.00.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Antofagasta, up 383.00p at 4,000.00p, Fresnillo, up 178.00p at 3,912.00p, Anglo American, up 162.00p at 3,661.00p, Glencore, up 21.70p at 507.70p, and Endeavour Mining, up 192.00p at 4,702.00p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were BT Group, down 5.10p at 203.30p, National Grid, down 28.00p at 1,348.50p, Diageo, down 35.00p at 1,761.00p, Severn Trent, down 62.00p at 3,158.00p, and SSE, down 46.00p at 2,604.00p.
On Thursday's economic calendar are US weekly jobless claims figures, along with trade balance and wholesale inventories figures. There will also be eurozone current account and construction output data.
Thursday's UK corporate calendar sees full year results for a range of companies including Rio Tinto, Mondi and Centrica.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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Related Shares:
AntofagastaGlencoreFresnilloBAE SystemsBTVodafonePan African ResourcesTrellus Health.Endeavour MiningNational GridDiageoSevern TrentSSEAnglo American