The UK market is higher in afternoon trading Wednesday, after additional stimulus announcement from Japan. The Asian markets ended in positive territory and the U.S. index futures are higher.
The Bank of Japan embarked on a powerful monetary easing by expanding the total size of the asset purchase program by about 10 trillion yen and extending the asset purchase deadline by six months.
The minutes of the Bank of England's policy meeting held on September 5 and 6 showed that policymakers unanimously decided to maintain quantitative easing at 375 billion pounds and the interest rate unchanged at 0.50 percent.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.08 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is rising 0.16 percent.
The FTSE 100 index is currently rising 0.13 percent.
Among miners, Eurasian Natural Resources and Kazakhmys are notably higher.
Lonmin is advancing 2.4 percent. The striking miners at its Marikana platinum mine in South Africa's North West province finally struck a deal with the management on wages after a 39-day violent strike. The protesting miners were demanding pay rises and recognition of a new union.
United Utilities is gaining 2.7 percent. Severn Trent is rising 1.4 percent.
Smiths Group reported a decline in fiscal 2012 profit hurt by one-time costs. The British technology company's revenue, however, increased with growth across all divisions. The stock is up 1.2 percent.
HSBC is gaining 1.4 percent. Barclays is losing 1.7 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland is modestly lower.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX and the French CAC 40 are rising marginally. Switzerland's SMI is gaining 0.19 percent.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries added 0.5 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.40 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed 1.2 percent each.
In the U.S., futures point to a higher open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the major averages eventually ended the day mixed, although they were all nearly flat. While the Dow inched up 0.1 percent, the Nasdaq edged down 0.03 percent and the S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for October delivery is losing $0.23 to $95.06 per barrel and December gold is rising $4.9 to $1776.1 a troy ounce.
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Market Analysis
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.