- FTSE 100 up 0.6% to 6,378
- Gold down 0.49% to 1,177.32
- £/$ – 1.5438
The FTSE 100 ended the week with a rise on Friday, climbing 0.6% to 6,378, but was down 0.6% for the week as a whole.
Pharmaceuticals company Shire was the day’s highest climber, up 3.1%. Insurer Prudential added 2.6%, and struggling supermarket operator Tesco added 2.4%.
In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 rose 0.6% to 4,702, and the German Xetra Dax was 0.4% higher at 10,104.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 17,215, the S&P 500 added 0.5% to 2,033, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3% to 4,886.
Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 slid 0.9 % to 18,131, and the broader Topix index fell 0.4% to 1,494. And in China, the CSI 300 was unchanged at 3,534, and the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.1% to 3,386.
Brent spot was trading at $50.18 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $47.00. Spot gold was trading at $1,174 an ounce, silver was at $15.89 and platinum was at $1010.
In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5460 and against the euro at 1.6322. The dollar was trading at 0.8808 against the euro and 119.34 against the Japanese yen.
And in the UK, broadcaster ITV is to buy the TV stations of Northern Ireland’s UTV Media in a deal worth £100m. UTV reported half-yearly profits of £1m on turnover of £58.3m.