London’s stocks rallied strongly as George Osborne delivered the first Conservative Party Budget for twenty years.
Footsie was 76 points higher at 6,510 despite another torrid night for shares in Asia and more uncertainty over Greece.
US futures were pointing to heavy falls ahead of the open with concerns over China and the latest Federal Reserve minutes due this evening.
China, in particular, caused some consternation.
More than 50% of Chinese shares are now suspended due to the recent sell-off, which has wiped trillions off the value of markets in Shanghai.
Greece meanwhile has been given five days to come up with more proposals to appease it creditors or face being booted out of the eurozone.
Its PM Alexis Tsipras expects to present more reforms, while submitting a request from the eurozone’s bailout fund.
Housebuilders were among the early responders to the chancellor.
Barratt Development (LON:BDEV), Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) and Persimmon (LON:PSN), down between 3.6% and 2.5%, with changes to tax breaks on buy-to-let properties.
It overshadowed more cuts to corporation tax, which will fall to 18%, and a rise in the personal allowance to £11,000 with £43,000 now her the higher rate kicks in.
Most of the headlines will surround the changes to the welfare spending budget.
The minimum wage rises to £9 per hour, but there were cuts to universal credits and the benefits cap.
Away from the Chancellor, Barclays (LON:BARC) continued to make gains after the bank ousted Antony Jenkins, its chief executive for the past three years.
“New leadership is required to accelerate the pace of execution going forward,” it said with chairman John McFarlane to be an executive until a replacement is found.
Barclays shares rose by 3% to 260.4p.
Other notable risers included Tesco (LON:TSCO) on reports of more interest in its for sale Asian operations. Shares rose 1.4% to 203.4p.
SSE (LON:SSE) rallied after the report by CMA yesterday on the energy supply industry stopped short of recommending breaking up the big companies. Shares rose 26p to 1,567p.
Companies with exposure to Asian markets were the big losers. HSBC (LON;HSBA), Standard Chartered(LON:STAN) and Prudential (LON:PRU) were all heavily marked down.
Elsewhere, small oilers were mixed.
Independent Oil & Gas (LON:IOG) rose 19% to 17.85p on news of a possible investment for a 29.9% stake for £7.1mln.
Empyrean Energy (LON:EME) climbed 17% to 6.88p on the back of a big resources upgrade on its acreage in the US.
But there were heavy falls of Azonto (LON:AZO) on plans to delist, while Red Rock (LON:RRR) dropped 21% to 0.051p on a new round of funding.
Fevertree Drinks (LON:FEVR) rose 10% to 319p. The fizzy mixers maker had a strong first half to the year with June a particularly good month.