London

THE Bank of England's expanded quantitative-easing (QE) programme ran into a stumbling block on just its second day as investors proved unwilling to part with their holdings of longer-dated bonds.

The central bank failed to buy enough gilts to reach its stated goal at an operation on Tuesday - the first such failure since it initially started quantitative easing in 2009. The yield on 10 and 30-year bonds fell to records after the operation.