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(Alliance News) - Stocks in London were retreating from high levels on Friday having found support during the week following dovish reinforcement from the US Federal Reserve, while FTSE 250 member PageGroup surged after a positive quarter.
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday again repeated his mantra that the central bank would stand fast in its pledge to keep borrowing costs at record lows for as long as needed to support recovery in the world's top economy.
While last week's blockbuster jobs report was welcome, Powell said the "recovery remains uneven and incomplete" and he wanted to see more of those in future before he was happy progress was being made.
The FTSE 100 index was down 7.27 points, or 0.1%, at 6,934.95 early Friday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was flat at 22,246.57. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.2% at 1,236.10.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.6% at 691.80. The Cboe 250 was up 0.2% at 19,874.30. The Cboe Small Companies was up 0.1% at 14,222.75.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris was down 0.2% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was flat.
"European stocks opened a shade lower on Friday morning as the major bourses look to close out a largely positive holiday-shortened trading week. The FTSE 100 is up around 3% this week after hitting its strongest since February 2020. It's been a very good week for UK equities as the blue chips finally broke out to post-pandemic highs and the mid-caps on the FTSE 250 hit an all-time high," said Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson.
"Whilst the US and European equity benchmarks have roared to all-time highs since the pandemic, the FTSE 100, in particular, has struggled. The recovery in the pound has not helped - weakness this month has helped the FTSE - but it remains the case that the UK's largest companies are trading at a discount to peers," Wilson added.
In the FTSE 100, JD Sports Fashion was the best performer, up 1.3% and Next was just behind, up 1.2%. The retailers were higher as lockdown restrictions are set to ease further in England on Monday with non-essential stores allowed to open until 2200 BST.
At the other end of the large-caps, British American Tobacco was the worst performer, down 2.2%, after JPMorgan downgraded the tobacco giant to Neutral from Overweight.
In the FTSE 250, PageGroup was the best performer, up 8.8%, after the recruiter reported higher first-quarter gross profit of GBP184.2 million, up from GBP182.3 million in the first-quarter of 2020, helped by improvements in hiring in its EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.
Looking ahead, Page expects full-year operating profit to be within the range of GBP90 million to GBP100 million. It posted annual operating profit of GBP17.0 million in 2020.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Ingham said: "This noticeable improvement in March was seen throughout the group and was achieved despite the backdrop of continued and increasing restrictions or lockdowns in many of our markets. We delivered record months in March in markets such as Germany, Italy, Spain and South East Asia."
At the other end of the mid-caps, Babcock International was the worst performer, down 6.5%, after the Financial Times reported late on Thursday the defence contractor is preparing to write down the value of its assets and may update the market in the coming days.
The cost of the write down is still subject to change, but analysts estimate it could be as high as GBP700 million.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 0.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.3%.
Official data showed China's consumer price index rose 0.4% on-year in March, with prices of some food items such as fresh fruit growing but that of pork dropping. A smaller annual rise in consumer prices of 0.3% was expected, according to consensus cited by FXStreet.
China's CPI, a key gauge of retail inflation, had in recent years been driven up by pork prices after an African swine fever outbreak ravaged stocks. This has since stabilised with officials working to boost supplies of the country's staple meat.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3706 early Friday, down from USD1.3739 at the close on Thursday, amid concerns over severe side effects with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
Europe's medicines regulator said this week the AstraZeneca vaccine could cause very rare blood clots in some recipients, prompting a cascade of countries to pull the plug on giving it to people under a certain age.
The euro was priced at USD1.1900, flat from USD1.1903. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY109.37, up from JPY109.25.
Brent oil was quoted at USD63.07 a barrel Friday morning, up from USD62.89 late Thursday. Gold was trading at USD1,748.14 an ounce, lower against USD1,754.40.
The international economic calendar on Friday has US producer prices at 1330 BST.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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