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* GDP falls by 2.9% in January from December
* Burberry jumps on upbeat outlook
* AstraZeneca cuts COVID-19 vaccine forecast
* FTSE 100 up 0.4%, FTSE 250 off -0.1%
(Updates to close)
By Shivani Kumaresan and Amal S
March 12 (Reuters) - London's FTSE 100 reversed course on
Friday and ended a strong week on an upbeat note, with banks and
consumer staples leading gains, while data showed the UK economy
shrank by less than feared in January.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended 0.4% higher on
Friday and rose for the second consecutive week, as investors
bet on a gradual easing of coronavirus restrictions and a steady
vaccination programme to eventually spur growth.
Britain's economy contracted by 2.9% in January from
December as the country went back into a lockdown and is likely
to shrink by 4% in the first quarter of 2021, official data
showed.
"The big message that investors will take from today's GDP
figures isn't that there was a fall in January, but that the
fall was far less steep than most economists had predicted,"
said Danni Hewson, analyst at AJ Bell.
Bank stocks, including Barclays PLC, HSBC Holdings
plc, Lloyds Banking Group and Standard
Chartered gained between 0.8% and 3.6%, tracking higher
U.S. Treasury yields.
A selloff in U.S. debt resumed, with yields on benchmark
10-year notes approaching the one-year highs touched last week.
A raft of global stimulus has helped the FTSE 100 rebound
more than 37% from its coronavirus-driven crash last year, but
it has lagged its European peer, the STOXX 600 index,
on worries about the economic damage from prolonged lockdowns.
The domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index fell
0.1%, dragged down by tech and discretionary consumer stocks.
Luxury group Burberry rose 6.9% to the top of the
blue-chip index after recording a strong rebound in sales since
December, which it expected to result in a profit for the year
to March 27 - beating market forecasts.
AstraZeneca Plc fell 0.9%, after scaling back its
planned deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to the European Union in
the first quarter to about 30 million doses, a third of its
contractual obligations and a 25% drop from pledges made last
month.
(Reporting by Shivani Kumaresan and Amal S in Bengaluru;
Editing by Rashmi Aich)
