12:48 PM EDT, 10/28/2026 (MT Newswires) -- London's FTSE 100 closed 0.05% higher on Wednesday after John Healey delivered his first budget statement as the UK chancellor of the exchequer. Healey announced a plan to raise the bank surcharge to 6% from 3% for 15 months until March 2028, which is expected to help fund energy payments for up to 20 million households in 2027. He also confirmed an extension to the temporary value-added tax cut on electricity bills until July 1, 2027. The chancellor also proposed abolishing standing charges on household gas bills in 2027, raising the national living wage by 3.9%, and increasing machine games duty to 25% from 20%. Meanwhile, the UK's Office for Budget Responsibility raised its economic growth forecast for 2026 to 1.2% from 1.1%, while lowering its projection for 2027 by about 50 basis points to 1%. Growth in 2028 is still expected to reach 1.6%. The budget also included a multi-decade cooperation agreement with Rolls-Royce (RR.L), beginning with a joint 10-year, 2.5 billion-pound-sterling program, to develop next-generation gas turbine technology for civil and defense aerospace. The initiative is expected to support 3,300 jobs in the coming years. The power and propulsion systems company closed the session 1.24% in the green. In other corporate news, drugmaker GSK (GSK.L) lost 5.25% to become one of the blue-chip index's worst performers after reporting that third-quarter profit attributable to shareholders fell to 1.54 billion pounds from 2.01 billion pounds a year earlier. The decline reflected 328 million pounds in "major" restructuring charges under its Accelerate Growth program. Unilever (ULVR.L) was also down 2.01% after logging a 6.7% annual rise in third-quarter turnover and maintaining its 2026 target for underlying sales growth of 4% to 6%. "While we think these results starkly illustrate why Unilever wants to become an [emerging markets] focused [home and personal care] business, the reality is that it (and by extension its shareholders) still own a food business that is dragging down group performance," RBC Capital Markets wrote. On the upside, Standard Chartered (STAN.L) rose 2.77% after reporting annual increases in third-quarter attributable profit to $1.76 billion from $1.30 billion and operating income to $5.78 billion.

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