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LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 is on track to post its sixth consecutive daily rise Friday, as weaker-than-expected UK retail sales and public finances data failed to dent the recent market positivity.
By mid-morning, the FTSE 100 is up 0.4% at 6,836.91, just over 30 points shy of its highest level in 2014, the FTSE 250 is up 0.3% at 16,415.65, and the AIM All-Share index is marginally higher at 882.99.
British retail sales declined more-than-expected in January. Including automotive fuel, retail sales fell 1.5% month-on-month, the first decline in three months, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists had been expecting a more modest 1% decrease, after the 2.5% rise in December.
At the same time, the Office of National Statistics published UK public finances data for January. The UK public sector net borrowing posted a surplus of GBP6.43 billion in January, having recorded a GBP9.03 billion deficit in December.
In the forex market, the pound has retaken the losses it made before the data was published. The currency was trading at a weekly low of USD1.661 at the time of the release, but is now at USD1.6668. Similarly, after dipping against the Swiss franc and the euro, sterling now trades at CHF1.4843 and EUR1.2161.
At the individual UK stock level, Royal Bank of Scotland, up 1.4%, is amongst the biggest risers in the FTSE 100. The group is preparing a dramatic retrenchment that would see it become a much smaller UK retail and commercial bank, a move that is expected to see staff numbers slashed by at least 30,000 in the coming years, the Financial Times reported Friday.
Shore Capital has reiterated its Buy recommendation, saying that the move is likely to result in a, "smaller but more efficient, higher return and less risky bank."
GlaxoSmithKline, up 1%, is another big riser. The drugs giant said that Incruse, a treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, had been recommended for marketing authorisation by the European Medicines Agency's committee for Medical Products for Human Use, a key step in getting approval for the drug.
The news comes after Anoro, another treatment for the disease, was also recommended for marketing authorisation by the committee on Thursday.
In the FTSE 250, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and IP Group are the stand-out performers.
Millennium & Copthorne reported a pretax profit of GBP167.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2013, up from only GBP54.2 million a year earlier, and recorded a pretax profit of GBP263.6 million for the year as a whole, compared with a profit of GBP171.3 million in 2012.
IP Group, meanwhile, has jumped after it said its portfolio company, Xeros Ltd, intends to float on AIM to raise funds to bring its cleaning product to the laundry market.
Still to come in the data calendar Friday, US existing home sales data is released at 1500 GMT, before President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis James Bullard gives a speech at 1810 GMT.
By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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