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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London closed higher on Friday amid hopes the escalating tit-for-tat tariff war between the US and China was on hold, leaving the blue chip index higher for the week.
The FTSE 100 index closed up 0.3% at 7,207.18 Friday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index closed up 0.5% at 19,393.63. The AIM All-Share index closed 0.1% higher at 871.57.
For the week, the blue chips closed 0.8% higher. The mid-cap index finished up 0.9% and the All-Share 0.2% higher.
The Cboe UK 100 closed down 0.1% at 12,189.36 the Cboe UK 250 up 0.5% at 17,242.00, and the Cboe UK Small Companies down marginally at 10,849.26.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2178 at the London close, lower from USD1.2196 late Thursday.
"Global equities are advancing at least in part on ideas that trade tensions are easing," Bannockburn Global Forex Chief Market Strategist Mark Chandler said.
"China announced it would not take immediate action on the five percentage point increase in levies that the US announced strictly in response to China's retaliatory tariffs", Chandler continued.
On Thursday, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said that although Beijing had "sufficient means" to make countermeasures to fresh tariff hikes from the US, it was focused on "preventing the trade war from continuing to escalate."
In the UK, headlines remained focused on the fall-out from the decision by new Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson to suspend Parliament for a month shortly after legislators returned from their holiday.
"The decision by the PM to prorogue parliament caused plenty of controversy and clearly toed the line as far as flouting the constitution goes, but in effect all it has done is shorten the timeline for those looking to prevent a no-deal Brexit," XTB Chief Market Analyst David Cheetham said.
With political opponents to a no-deal Brexit across parties looking to rally together to block any attempt by Johnson to push a no-deal through, interest has turned to whether and how they could achieve this.
"Intricate legalities surrounding the decision will be scrutinized in a forensic manner with Scottish courts scheduled to have a substantive hearing on the issue on Tuesday, but in all likelihood this won't change the current state of play," Cheetham added.
Amongst the blue chips moving in London, shares in software firm Micro Focus International finished the day 5.5% higher after recovering some of the steep losses experienced on Thursday following a guidance cut.
On Thursday, Micro Focus sank almost a third after a "weak sales execution" and "deteriorating" economic environment forced it to forecast full year like-for-like revenue to fall between 6% and 8%. This was considerably weaker than the 4% to 6% fall previously forecast.
In the FTSE 250, loan provider Amigo Holdings closed 10% higher - topping the index - as it clawed back a little of the 52% share price declines recorded on Thursday after slashing its loan book growth forecasts.
For the year ending March, Amigo expects its net loan book growth to be "broadly flat" rather than the previous mid-teens growth forecast. This was after Amigo chose to focus on new rather than existing customers amid the "evolving regulatory and economic environment."
Builders merchant Grafton Group ended 10% higher after delivering interim profit and revenue growth despite ongoing "market uncertainty".
For the six months ended June, pretax profit edged 1.0% higher to GBP90.9 million after revenue rose 2.4% to GBP1.48 billion. Performance was helped by its Irish units as well as "good" growth in the Netherlands, the UK division performed well despite a "softer market".
Grafton proposed a 6.5 pence per share interim dividend, up 8.3% on the year prior.
Looking forward, Grafton intends to remain focused on self-help initiatives amid ongoing pricing and volumes pressures in the market.
Engineering services firm John Wood Group ended 4.1% higher at 375.10 pence after a brace of upbeat broker notes despite releasing weaker-than-expected interim results.
Berenberg described shares in John Wood as "too cheap" despite the "light" half year results. Consequently, the German bank retained a Buy recommendation despite cutting its price target to 540p from 590p prior.
UK bank HSBC also trimmed its price target for John Wood to 660p from 695p before, holding firm on a Buy recommendation.
Iron pellet maker Ferrexpo closed 1.6% higher after it was "satisfied" no employees had any involvement in the potential misappropriation of funds its donated to an Ukrainian charity.
The firm is considering further steps with regards to the potential misuse of funds donated to the third-party Blooming Land medical and social services charity.
Elsewhere in London, AIM-listed data and advertising firm Jaywing ended 43% lower after delaying its annual results for the year ended March by a month until September amid talks to secure new funding from lenders and shareholders.
Jaywing added the first quarter of financial 2020 had been "very weak" but that trading had improved since July.
Footwear retailer Shoe Zone ended 30% lower after delivering a profit warning amid "challenging" trading conditions.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer Nick Davis resigned from the AIM-listed firm to be replaced by former chief and current Executive Chair Anthony Smith.
Shoe Zone warned that profit for the year ending October 5 will be "below its expectations" amid tough markets and would be hurt by a more than GBP2 million write-down to the value of its freehold properties.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones was trading 0.1% higher, the S&P 500 down 0.1%, whilst the Nasdaq was down 0.4%.
In mainland Europe, in Paris the CAC 40 equities index ended up 0.4%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.6%.
The euro was quoted at USD1.0988, lower compared to USD1.1075 late Thursday.
Data from Eurostat showed the eurozone flash consumer price index in August was 1.0% higher on the year prior. The print was unchanged from the July consumer inflation rate. Core inflation - excluding fuel and food - was 0.9% higher in August on the year prior, also unchanged on the months prior.
Meanwhile, the eurozone unemployment rate for July stood at 7.5%. This was unchanged on the June print, but marked an improvement on the 8.1% reported the year prior.
For Capital Economics Chief Europe Economist Andrew Kenningham said the "scene is set" by the unchanged data from the European Central Bank to "loosen policy further."
"All in all, there is nothing in today's data releases to change the minds of policymakers, who will meet the week after next," Kenningham added. "We still expect the ECB Governing Council to cut its deposit rate by 10 basis points and to provide further strong hints that more quantitative easing is on the way, although we suspect that it will take another month before the details of a new round of asset purchases is agreed."
Gold was quoted at USD1,528.74 an ounce at the London equities close, lower versus USD1,536.50 Thursday.
Brent oil was quoted at USD58.80 a barrel at the London equities close, lower than USD60.85 at the close Thursday.
In the economic calendar on Monday, US markets are closed for the Labor Day holiday.
Meanwhile, a flurry of manufacturing purchasing managers' index data are due. Starting with Japan at 0130 BST and China at 0245 BST, they are followed by Germany at 0855 BST, the eurozone at 0900 BST and the UK at 0930 BST.
Later in the week, the US will release manufacturing PMI on Tuesday with Wednesday seeing a string of further services and composite PMI prints from a number of countries.
Thursday, US weekly jobless claims data and July factory orders data are released. On Friday, German industrial production data is followed by eurozone GDP and US non-farm payrolls and unemployment figures.
In UK corporate events on Monday, full year results are due from Dechra Phamaceuticals. Half year results are also expected from Anglo-South African insurer Old Mutual and internet domain seller CentralNic Group.
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