- FTSE 100 up 1.7% to 6,156
- Gold down 0.22% to $1,251.98/oz
- £/$ – 1.4502
The FTSE 100 ended the week on a high note on Friday, climbing 1.7% to close at 6,156.
Housebuilders were among the day’s best performers. Barratt Developments rose3.9%, Berkeley Group added 3.6% and Persimmon was 3.1% higher. Greek drinks bottler Coca Cola HBS was the day’s highest climber with a 6.2% rise.
In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 rose 1.7% to 4,353and the German Xetra Dax added 1.2% to 9,916.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% to 17,500, the S&P 500 added 0.6% to 2,052, and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.2% higher at 4,769.
Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.5% to 16,654 and the broader Topix index slipped 0.4% to 1,338. And in China, the CSI 300 rose 0.3% to 3,087 and the Shanghai Composite added 0.6% to 2,843.
Brent spot was trading at $48.30 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $47.87. Spot gold was trading at $1,251 an ounce, silver was at $16.33 and platinum was at $1,015.
In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.4517 and against the euro at 1.2945. The dollar was trading at 0.8916 against the euro and 109.59 against the Japanese yen.
And today, Ryanair reported a big rise in profits for the year. Net profit for the 12 months to the end of March rose by 43% to €1.2bn. Revenues rose by 16% to €6.5bn.