First time buyers shrink while lenders lose mortgage deals

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The number of mortgage deals for first-time buyers has been cut by more than 40 per cent over the past year, as mortgage lending pressure has tightened in Britain.

There were 199 products available over the weekend for home seekers looking to borrow up to 95 percent of a property’s value, down from 347 in June last year, according to Moneyfacts.

5 things to start your day

1) The Bank of England is racing to prevent a future bond market crash as interest rates rise | Officials have launched a new stress test to better understand the stress on the financial system

2) Germany’s best-selling newspaper to replace editors with AI | Bild is planning a radical reform amid declining circulation and a series of sex scandals

3) The European Investment Bank suffered a cyberattack after Russian hackers vowed to bring down the financial system | Hackers have threatened to attack Western financial institutions over their support for Ukraine

4) AstraZeneca plans to sell its artificial intelligence drug unit to the Chinese | The plan comes in an effort to protect the rest of the business from geopolitical tensions

5) South West Water drops £440,000 bonus amid sewage spill backlash | The water company was fined more than £2m in April for dumping sewage illegally

What happened overnight

Asian stocks mostly fell as some investors took a wait-and-see attitude after US markets were closed for a national holiday.

Some investors were also disappointed after a meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken yielded no signs of progress from either side on Taiwan, human rights, technology and other contentious issues.

Investors were also concerned that China’s recent rate cut was not enough to boost confidence in the weak economy and waited for a broader stimulus package by Beijing.

China, in a highly anticipated move, has cut two major benchmark lending rates for the first time in 10 months, cutting the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) by 10 basis points to 3.55% and lowering the five-year LPR by the same margin to 4.20. piece.

The Nikkei benchmark in Tokyo pared its previous losses and closed slightly higher despite the drop in European stocks, after the central bank in Beijing cut its two benchmark interest rates.

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.1% to close at 33,388.91, while the broader Topix fell 0.3%, to 2,283.85.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9%, to 7,362.90. The Kospi index in South Korea lost 0.3 percent to 2,601.07 points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.4 percent to 19,627.86, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2 percent to 3,248.53.

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