12th Aug 2016 16:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK equities on Friday saw a mixed end to another strong week, with miners holding back the FTSE 100 index, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 benefited from a jump in the shares of Restaurant Group after the company changed CEOs.
The FTSE 100 closed up 1.31 points at 6,916.02, extending its run of gains to seven consecutive sessions. For the week as a whole, the blue-chip index closed up 1.8% and touched its highest level since early June 2015 at 6,931.04.
The FTSE 250 index ended Friday up 0.6%, or 113.82 points, at 17,921.38 and up 2.6% over the week, hitting its highest level in over a year at 17,946.85. The AIM All-Share rose 0.4%, or 3.31 points, to 783.23, it highest close since July 2014.
In Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris closed down 0.1% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt off 0.3%.
On Wall Street at the London close, the Dow Industrials was down 0.1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices were both flat.
The dollar fell sharply after US retail sales stagnated in July, coming in unchanged versus the expectation for a 0.4% monthly rise. The flat retail sales reading came despite a jump in sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, which surged up by 1.1% in July after rising by 0.5% in June. In June, retail sales grew by 0.4%.
Pantheon Macroeconomics said the US data was "disappointing but not disastrous", while Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex called the figures "alarming".
The dollar immediately declined sharply following the data, but made up ground towards the European equities close.
At the London stock market close, the pound traded the dollar at USD1.2931, below the USD1.2967 level seen late Thursday. The euro traded at USD1.1176 at the equities close Friday versus USD1.1173 at the close Thursday.
On the London Stock Exchange, the mining sector came under pressure following poor economic data from China overnight. Industrial production, retail sales and investment from the world's second largest economy and the biggest consumer of mining goods, all registered lower-than-anticipated growth.
Anglo American was the biggest FTSE 100 faller, down 2.0%, while Antofagasta lost 1.8% and BHP Billiton 1.5%.
Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources both lost 1.0%, recovering from heavier early losses as the price of gold came off its intraday lows. At the London stock market close, the metal traded at USD1,351.59 an ounce, up from a low of USD1,334.70 and above the USD1,350.20 seen late Thursday.
Brent oil moved higher to USD46.75 a barrel at the close on Friday versus USD45.58 at the same time on Thursday.
Restaurant Group was the stand-out mid-cap stock, rising 12%. The casual dining chain replaced Danny Breithaupt as chief executive with Andy McCue, the former boss of betting company Paddy Power prior to its merger with Betfair.
Numis analyst Tim Barrett said the executive change was an "excellent appointment", and expects the company, which runs Frankie & Benny's and Garfunkel's restaurants, to reach the low end of the broker's full-year forecasts.
Animal genetics company Genus said a US court has ruled that it infringed Inguran's two patents, and that Genus materially breached confidentiality obligations.
The US district court for the western district of Wisconsin found that the two patents held by Inguran, operating as Sexting Technologies, were valid and infringed by Genus' sexed semen processing technology.
The court also ruled that Genus had breached its confidentiality obligations under the 2012 semen sorting agreement between the two parties. The stock ended as the worst FTSE 250 performer, down 8.1%.
RapidCloud International shares surged 38%, the best performer on AIM, after it said its Malaysian subsidiary was appointed as an authorised gold supplier membership channel sales partner for Malaysia by Alibaba Group.
The appointment means RapidCloud will be helping the Chinese e-commerce giant enroll Malaysian small and medium businesses into its gold supplier membership. RapidCloud will initially deploy at least 30 sales people over the first six months of the agreement, which will expand to at least 40 within the first year of the agreement.
In the economic calendar for Monday, the Rightmove house price index for the UK is at 0001 BST, before Japanese GDP at 0050 BST. In the afternoon, the New York manufacturing index is at 1330 BST and the US National Association of Home Builders housing market index is at 1500 BST.
In the UK corporate calendar, there are half-year results from shipping services provider Clarkson, housebuilder Bovis Homes Group, and private healthcare provider Georgia Healthcare Group.
By Neil Thakrar; [email protected]; @NeilThakrar1
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