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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened slightly higher Friday on a half-day ahead of the four-day Christmas break.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 13.26 points, 0.2% at 7,482.54. The FTSE 250 was up 9.20 points at 18,771.27, and the AIM All-Share was up 1.88 points, 0.2%, at 828.06.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 748.06, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.2% at 16,233.83, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.2% at 12,971.55.
The London Stock Exchange will close early at 1230 GMT on Friday for the festive period. It will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, before reopening on Wednesday.
"The Santa rally looks to be short-lived across the pond, as US stocks came under pressure from renewed interest rate fears, and the FTSE 100 struggles to regain form," said Hargreaves Lansdown's Matt Britzman.
Wall Street ended lower on Thursday, after a revised GDP print showed the US economy grew faster than previously thought in the third quarter.
Gross domestic product grew by 3.2% in the third quarter on a year before, the revised figures showed. This was an increase from the previous estimate of 2.9% growth.
"This positive economic news wasn’t expected and lead many investors to fear interest rate hikes would continue for longer in the absence any real data to suggest the US economy is in distress," Britzman added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.1%, the S&P 500 down 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite down 2.2%.
Meanwhile, the dollar was mixed against major currencies.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.2070 early Friday, firm on USD1.2028 at the London equities close on Thursday. The euro traded at USD1.0623, higher than USD1.0599. Against the yen, however, the dollar was quoted at JPY132.60, up versus JPY132.32.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.1%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was a fraction higher.
Gold was quoted at USD1,794.98 an ounce early Friday, down from USD1,796.92 late on Thursday.
Brent oil fetched at USD81.67 a barrel, lower than USD82.69. But the price remains elevated. At the London market close last Friday, it was quoted at USD78.82.
"Oil is headed for a sizeable weekly gain on China's fast-tracked policy pivots and on threats, idle or not, that Russia might cut crude production in response to the price cap imposed by G7," said SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak on Friday said that Russia may reduce oil production by 5% to 7% early next year, in comments reported by Reuters.
Meanwhile in the FTSE 100, retailers Next and JD Sports were up 1.1% and 0.8%.
"Today was forecast to be the busiest shopping day of the year according to Sensormatic, but there is a chance the peak shopping period may well have passed in the UK, as consumers heeded warning to buy early to avoid disappointment due to strikes," HL's Britzman said.
The UK is currently beset by industrial action, with rail strikes likely to discourage footfall for bricks and mortar retailers and strikes against Royal Mail to disrupt online shopping.
Clothing retailer Superdry returned some of Thursday's gains, losing 4.9% in early trade. The stock closed up 16% on Thursday as it reported its interim revenue had grown by 3.6% year-on-year thanks to a strong performance in its stores.
In the FTSE 250, Royal Mail-parent International Distributions Services was up 0.8%. However, the stock has lost 25% in the past six months.
Automotive distributor Inchcape edged 0.6% lower, as it said all conditions have been met for its acquisition of Derco.
This follows support from shareholders last week and approval from Peruvian authorities on Thursday. It expects completion to take place before the end of the year.
Inchcape first announced the proposed GBP1.3 billion acquisition of the Latin America automotive distributor back in July.
On AIM, MS International jumped 24%.
The defence equipment manufacturer signed a contract worth GBP22.4 million with an unnamed overseas customer for its land-based mobile gun systems.
It is the first contract for the MSI-DS Terrahawk Vshorad dual feed weapon systems, for mobile air defence.
MS International is aiming to fulfil the contract as soon as practicable, and expects to recognise the revenue at some point in 2023.
In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.0%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 0.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.6%.
By Elizabeth Winter, Alliance News senior markets reporter
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