Tate & Lyle sinks (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - London, 20 Jun - UK shares closed higher after the Bank of England said its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 7-2 at its meeting ending on June 19 to maintain Bank Rate at 5.25%, while two members preferred to reduce the rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 5%.

While headline CPI inflation has fallen back to the 2% target, the central bank said that "monetary policy will need to remain restrictive for sufficiently long to return inflation to the 2% target sustainably in the medium term in line with the MPC's remit." It added that the timing of the July 4 election was not relevant to its rate decision, "which would as usual be made on the basis of what was judged necessary to achieve the 2% target sustainably in the medium term." Among individual stocks, UK specialty food and beverage company Tate & Lyle sank 9.08% at 615.50 pence after announcing it had entered into an agreement to buy US peer CP Kelco for 1.8 billion US dollars.

While DS Smith jumped 2.84% at 362.00 pence after the packaging company said it expected to recover from the second half of the year into 2026 thanks to higher prices and increased demand.

The London FTSE 100 closed up 0.82% at 8,272.46 points.

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(RADIOCOR) 20-06-24 18:26:21 (0625) 5 NNNN