(Alliance News) - Stocks in London managed to end higher on Friday, having spent most of the session in the red, as US equities touched fresh record highs following upbeat trade comments from the White House.
The FTSE 100 index closed up 10.18 points, or 0.1% at 7,302.94, ending the week down 0.8%. The large cap index had touched an intraday low of 7,243.15 in morning trade.
The FTSE 250 ended up 172.60 points, or 0.9% at 20,404.40, ending the week up 0.2%, and the AIM All-Share closed up 4.23 points, or 0.5% at 892.30, ending the week flat.
In Paris the CAC 40 ended up 0.7%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.5%.
"European markets have fared better with gains across the board, as investors take their cues from US officials that a deal is close to being sealed. Comments from Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump's chief economic advisor, which were followed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, that a phase one deal had a very high probability of happening, has helped maintain the late week optimism," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
On the London Stock Exchange, Whitbread ended the best blue-chip performer, up 4.8% after Barclays upgraded the Premier Inn hotel chain owner to Overweight from Equal Weight.
Barclays analyst Vikki Stern said there could be substantial upside to Whitbread shares should a favourable Brexit outcome for the UK be achieved.
Conversely, BT Group closed down 1.2% after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sent shockwaves through the City as he unveiled plans to nationalise the UK's broadband network, in a bid to provide free internet access for every home in the country.
BT's arms-length Openreach division maintains most of the UK's broadband infrastructure.
The move would bring parts of BT into public ownership, including Openreach which runs the UK's broadband network.
Labour said it would be paid for through the party's Green Transformation fund and taxing corporations such as Amazon, Facebook and Google - bringing an monthly saving of GBP30.30 to the average person.
Labour costed the scheme at GBP20 billion but BT - which would be partly taken back into public ownership - said Labour had dramatically under-estimated the price of its pledge, saying it would cost closer to GBP100 billion.
"It is unclear at this stage what a future Labour government would intend to pay BT for Openreach. A fully-costed policy would need to incorporate future FTTP deployment capital expenditure, Openreach running costs (annual cash costs reported as GBP2.2 billion per annum and we estimate maintenance capex at GBP0.8 to 0.9 billion pa), pension costs, less efficient operation of the Openreach asset, potential compensation for other network operators and potential compensation for retail broadband providers (undermined by the 'free' service provided on non-commercial terms)," said analysts at Jefferies.
In addition, BT paid a hefty GBP1.2 billion to retain exclusive rights to broadcast UEFA Champions League football matches in the UK until 2024, seeing off stiff competition from rivals Sky and ITV.
The deal will see BT broadcast 420 games from the elite Champions League club competition, the secondary Europa League and the new tertiary Europa Conference League - an increase of 77 matches. BT will pay GBP400 million a year in its new three-season deal, slightly more than GBP394 million a year paid under its current deal to exclusively show live matches and highlights.
In the FTSE 250, transport operator FirstGroup ended the best performer, up 5.7%. The UK monopoly regulator is considering undertakings offered by FirstGroup and Trenitalia to address competition concerns in relation to the award of the West Coast partnership rail franchise.
West Coast Rail, a joint venture between FirstGroup and Italian train operator Trenitalia, was awarded the West Coast rail franchise by the UK transport department in August. The Competition & Markets Authority said there are reasonable grounds to believe the undertakings offered, or a modified version of it, might be accepted.
At the other end of the midcaps, PureTech Health ended the worst performer, down 9.5% after the healthcare firm's independent affiliate resTORbio announced disappointing data from a study evaluating the safety and efficacy of a treatment for clinically symptomatic respiratory illness.
In the study, the treatment did not meet its primary endpoint and resTORbio said that it had stopped the development of RTB101 in this indication.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2901 at the London equities close, up from USD1.2855 at the close Thursday.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson dismissed as "nonsense" claims that the Conservatives offered peerages to senior Brexit Party figures in a bid to get them to stand aside in the general election.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage claimed he had repeatedly been offered a seat in the House of Lords in an attempt to persuade him to "go quietly".
He said that, when that failed, people working "deep inside Number 10" had tried to bypass him, going directly to senior Brexit Party figures and suggesting eight of them could be made peers if they could persuade him to withdraw more of his candidates.
Johnson flatly denied there had been any offers of peerages, saying that was "just not the way we operate".
The euro stood at USD1.1050 at the European equities close, firm against USD1.1000 late Thursday.
In economic news from the continent, inflation in the euro area eased slightly in October, according to Eurostat.
The annual inflation rate for the euro area was 0.7% in October, slowing from 0.8% the previous month. In October 2018, inflation stood at 2.3%. The highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate, Eurostat said, came from services, food, alcohol, & tobacco, non-energy industrial goods, and energy.
Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY108.70, firm against JPY108.65 late Thursday.
Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close, with major stock indices reaching fresh record intraday highs on US-China trade optimism.
The DJIA was up 0.4%, the S&P 500 index up 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.6%.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said late Thursday the sides have made "enormous progress" on an agreement although it is not yet final.
After weeks of conflicting statements, including President Donald Trump throwing cold water on the claim that he had agreed to roll back some of the tariffs imposed on China, Kudlow's latest comment was enough to buoy investors.
Brent oil was quoted at USD62.80 a barrel at the London equities close, down from USD62.95 at the close Thursday.
Gold was quoted at USD1,466.80 an ounce at the London equities close, flat against USD1,465.47 late Thursday.
The economic events calendar on Monday has the UK Rightmove house price index readings at 0001 GMT.
The UK corporate calendar on Monday has annual results from technical equipment supplier Diploma. There are also trading statements from Irish building materials firm Kingspan and law firm DWF Group.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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BT (BT.A)
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