LONDON: Gilts inched higher on Wednesday as the election victory for US President Barack Obama supported government bonds, though investors remained cautious ahead of the Bank of England's policy meeting.
Obama's win against Republican candidate Mitt Romney supported government bonds including Treasuries on expectations for continued accommodative monetary policy.
Attention will now also turn to the looming U.S fiscal cliff, a r aft of spending cuts and tax hikes worth around $600 billion due to take effect by year end that could hurt growth.
The BoE meeting, which starts on Wednesday, will be the main focus for gilt investors, with economists expecting no change in policy including no new round of quantitative easing. The bank will release a statement after the meeting ends on Thursday.
"There is little on the UK calendar today. Tomorrow's BoE MPC announcement remains a key focus," Lloyds strategists wrote in a note.
At 0859 GMT, the December gilt future was 2 ticks higher at 119.65, in line with its German counterpart.
"The widespread expectation of unchanged policy marks a sharp turnaround from forecasts just a few weeks ago that QE would be expanded," said Barclays strategists.
"This is partly due to evidence of firmer inflationary pressures," they said.
Markets digested data released overnight from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) which showed an increase in shop price inflation, driven by rising food costs.
"The BRC survey chimes with our expectation that inflation will start to rise again this autumn after falling by more than half over the past year," said Barclays strategists.
Ten-year gilt yields were steady at 1.813 percent, with their spread versus Bund yields little changed at nearly 38 basis points.
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