As it happened: FTSE 100 loses early gains as oil prices stay high

Welcome back to City AM‘s FTSE 100 live blog.

The UK’s blue-chip index made strong gains on Monday morning, jumping more than 0.9 per cent soon after the market open. This follows Tuesday’s strong showing, when the index gained nearly one per cent.

In a busy morning the corporate results, Premier Inn owner Whitbread hit back at its activist investor, housebuilder Bellway cast doubt over the Help to Buy revival and oil major BP said it is bracing for a $4.5bn hit from its green energy pivot.

Stick with us throughout the day for the latest news from the London Stock Exchange and the wider business world, as soon as we get it.

Here’s a few of our top headlines this morning:

• UK economy to suffer second-highest inflation in G7 
• ‘Slow-moving tsunami’ – IMF warns AI could hit 60 per cent of jobs in advanced economies
• Brexit U-turn? Burnham says he is taking ‘pragmatic’ approach on EU
• Asos hackers claim responsibility for Air France-KLM data breach
• We should be AI optimists, says Bank of England deputy