As we approach today's close, the UK’s leading index has shown a mid-afternoon slump, sinking to 5182.11 (-1.24%) at 4pm (London time).

The holding company Reed Elsevier is the top player this afternoon, up 1.44% on the day and leading a rather mixed bag of gainers. BP was holding second place with a 1.06% rise, ahead of a pack of retailers including Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Kingfisher and Sainsbury's. The budget's inclusion of a levy on UK banks' balance sheets doesn't seem to have hit the finance sector as hard as expected. Barclays is the only bank to hover near the bottom of the table with a -3.67% drop. Plumbing supplies firm Wolseley was hit by disappointing home sales data from the US, dropping 4.87% to hold the dubious honour of being the FTSE's biggest loser.  The lower echelons of the table are crammed full of  miners as this afternoon's disappointing US new home sales data provoked fears over the unsustainability of the global recovery - leading to demand concerns that have destabilised the resources sector.

Today’s MPC minutes revealed that a member of the committee voted to lift UK interest rates. This is the first time a member has voted this way since August 2008. Although this still leads to a majority of 7-1 voting to keep rates unchanged, it shows that persistent inflation is starting to cause concern. It's likely to be a quiet afternoon for UK stocks for the rest of the day, as people turn their attention away from computers and on to bigger screens. Over in the US, the FOMC interest rate decision will be revealed at 7.15pm, with many analysts expecting rates to remain unchanged.