UK borrowing jumps in December
EasyJet drops on soft guidance
Hochschild Mining tumbles on production update
FTSE 100 up 0.4, FTSE 250 up 0.5

Jan 22 Reuters London39;s FTSE 100 touched a record high on Wednesday, as positive corporate updates and expectations of further monetary policy easing outweighed worries about tariffs promised by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The bluechip FTSE 100 rose 0.3 by 1047 GMT, extending gains for a sixth straight session, while the midcap FTSE 250 index edged up 0.4 to touch a morethantwoweek high.

The broader European STOXX 600 index also touched a record high, with markets appearing to ignore fresh tariff threats from Trump, who vowed to hit the European Union with tariffs and said his administration was discussing a 10 punitive duty on Chinese imports.

Back home, Britain ran a biggerthanexpected budget deficit in December, swelled by debt interest costs and a oneoff purchase of military homes, according to data that underlined the fiscal pressure faced by finance minister Rachel Reeves.

Public sector net borrowing was 17.8 billion pounds 21.93 billion in December, while economists polled by Reuters had a median forecast of 14.1 billion pounds.

The pressure is on the chancellor to get public finances in order and to accelerate economic activity. Increasingly, it looks like both cannot be done in unison, Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

Among individual stocks, airline easyJet dropped 2.3, with analysts…