Bank of England dents FTSE 100 chances of a close above 7,700

Yesterday the FTSE 100 looked like it would make further progress above 7,700, with a daily close above that level. Well, it did not despite rising to new interim high at 7,724. The index then fell back close to 7,600 ahead of the close. The simple reason for that was all due to the Bank of England and comments later from the BOE governor, Andrew Bailey. Bailey continued to enforce the message from the policy statement released earlier in the day, not ruling out further rate increases and driving home the prospect of interest rates remaining high for an extended period.  The further gains n the GBP/USD did not help either. That combination did the FTSE 100 no favours and so the index was unable to close above 7,700. It still gained 100 points on the day though and was the best performing major European index, by some margin too. The FTSE 100 closed at 7,648. The futures are a little higher this morning and currently indicating an effective opening at around 7,660 this morning.