Zeina Bain, managing partner at Sullivan Street Partners, said investors had steeled themselves for an income tax rise in the Budget, so reports on Friday that the chancellor had dropped those plans had come as “a bit of a surprise”.
The other issue for investors, Ms Bain said, was about how the government would fill its Budget black hole.
“Are you going to renege on filling that hole and fiscal responsibility?” she told the BBC’s Today programme.
“That then leads into lower confidence which then feeds into higher bond yields, which then feeds into the cost of borrowing which leads to an even bigger hole.”
Hargreaves Lansdown chief investment strategist Emma Wall said that “swirling Budget rumours” had taken the markets by surprise.
“As a result, the pound has fallen on concerns that Reeves will now have insufficient fiscal headroom to execute spending plans,” she said.
