LONDON MARKET CLOSE: Stocks End Higher After US Job Growth Surges

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended higher on Friday, with HSBC leading the FTSE 100, as strong US jobs data lifted sentiment. The FTSE 100 index closed up 29.33 points, or 0.4% at 7,380.64, ending the week down 0.6%.The FTSE 250 index closed up 18.51 points, or 0.1% at 19,705.17, ending the week down 0.8% and the AIM All-Share closed up 2.09 points, or 0.2% at 970.48, ending the week up 0.1%.The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.3% at 12,507.50, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.2% at 17,689.11, while the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.2% at 11,774.04.In Paris the CAC 40 ended up 0.2%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.6%. "Stock markets finished the week on a positive note, helped along by an impressive US non-farm payrolls report. The FTSE 100 basically saw gains across all sectors, as energy, health care, financials, consumer and mining stocks all gained ground," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden.Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close after the Labor Department released a closely watched report showing job growth surged in the month of April.The DJIA was up 0.4%, the S&P 500 index up 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.1%.The Labor Department said the US economy added 263,000 jobs in April following a downwardly revised increase of 189,000 jobs in March.Economists had expected employment to climb by 185,000 jobs compared to the addition of 196,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month."The rebound in jobs continues, lending itself to stronger US growth than anticipated. Unemployment is at a multi-decade low, the trade talks with China are progressing well, and Chinese stimulus is in place, which should boost global demand. All of this bodes well for the US economy continuing to build momentum," Nancy Curtin, chief investment officer at Close Brothers Asset Management said.The report also said the unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in April from 3.8% in March, while economists had expected the rate to remain unchanged. With the unexpected decrease, the unemployment rate slid to its lowest level since hitting 3.5% in December of 1969.Moreover, the average hourly wage was up 3.2% compared to a year ago, well above the 1.9% rise in prices."All eyes are now on inflation, with the Federal Reserve racking its brains on how to get the figure above 2%. Business spending is going towards digital transformation rather than investment in labour, which is proving deflationary. What this means for expansion is unclear, but so long as Chair Jerome Powell remains pragmatic and flexible with his policy the US is in a good position for the second half of the year," Curtin added. On the London Stock Exchange, HSBC Holdings ended the best performer, up 1.9% after the Asia-focused bank reported strong first-quarter results, driven by its Retail Banking & Wealth Management and Commercial Banking businesses.For the three months ended March, pretax profit rose 30% to USD6.21 billion from USD4.76 billion the year prior. Excluding the impact of currency translation, pretax profit rose 9.5% on the year before.The lender's revenue increased 14% in the first quarter to USD14.43 billion from USD12.70 billion the year before. Revenue performance was driven by strong growth in all of HSBC's three main global businesses."Europe's biggest bank rounds off a decidedly mixed first-quarter reporting season for its sector with something of a flourish. HSBC's adjusted pretax profit has come in comfortably ahead of consensus forecasts," said AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.HSBC is London's second biggest listing by market capitalisation, behind oil major Royal Dutch Shell. At the other side of the large-cap index, budget airline easyJet and British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group both ended down 2.1%, following disappointing results from French peer Air France-KLM.Air France-KLM reported a net loss for the first quarter that widened from last year, reflecting unit revenue pressure and higher fuel costs that more than offset a decrease in unit costs. For the first quarter, net loss widened to EUR320 million from EUR269 million euros last year.Shares in the Franco-Dutch airline closed down 5.7% in Paris. Direct Line Insurance closed down 1.2% after the insurer was cut to Neutral from Buy by UBS. InterContinental Hotels Group closed down 1.1% after the hotel operator reported a slowdown in first-quarter occupancy rates. IHG said first quarter like-for-like group revenue per available room, or RevPAR - the industry's favoured performance measure - was up 0.3%, compared with an increase of 3.5% for the same three months last year. Occupancy rates were down 0.2%."InterContinental Hotels Group saw revenue per available room rise 0.3% in the first quarter, as pricing growth offset weaker occupancy. That was behind what some analysts had hoped for," said Hargreaves Lansdown's George Salmon. The pound was quoted at USD1.3150 at the London equities close, sharply higher than USD1.3034 at the close Thursday."Dollar weakness and a Lib Dem surge in the local elections have driven sterling higher. Both the main parties, ostensibly pledged to deliver Brexit, have been punished while the nation's long-established Remain party has been boosted. Low turnout and protest votes will distort the picture, but it also looks much less certain that a general election would be very good for Labour right now. Indeed, if their vote share stays just below 30% it would be very tough for them to assemble a stable coalition," said IG Group's Chris Beauchamp. On the political front, voters across the country took out their frustrations over Brexit on both major parties, with the Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents benefiting from a hammering for both the Tories and Labour.So far, the Tories have lost over 1,000 seats and more than 33 councils overall, while Labour has lost over 103 seats.In contrast, the Liberal Democrats have gained more than 555 councillors.Labour was licking its wounds after forfeiting control in heartland councils like Burnley, Hartlepool and Bolsover.Despite some predictions that Jeremy Corbyn's party could pick up three-figure gains, Labour was down 59 seats, though it did have the consolation of restoring control in Trafford for the first time sine 2003.Both the Conservative and Labour were left no doubt that they saw the results as a demand for resolution of the Brexit impasse three years after the 2016 vote for EU withdrawal.Meanwhile, the UK's dominant services sector returned to growth in April after contracting in March, the latest purchasing managers' index survey from IHS Markit showed.The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit-CIPS UK Services PMI Business Activity Index showed a score of 50.4 in April, up from March's 32-month low of 48.9 and just about in line with consensus estimates of 50.5. The score went back above the line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.The euro stood at USD1.185 at the European equities close, flat USD1.1182 late Thursday. Eurozone's consumer price inflation accelerated by more-than-expected in April to its highest level in five months, led by higher energy prices and services costs, preliminary data from Eurostat showed.The consumer price index rose 1.7% year-on-year following a 1.4% increase in March. Economists had forecast 1.6% inflation.Core inflation, which excludes prices of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, climbed to 1.2% from 0.8%. Economists had expected 1% inflation.Brent oil was quoted at USD71.18 a barrel at the London equities close, up from USD70.18 at the close Thursday. Gold was quoted at USD1,279.90 an ounce at the London equities close, up USD1,270.28 late Thursday, amid dollar weakness. The economic events calendar on Monday has services PMI readings from China, Italy, France, Germany and the eurozone at 0245 BST, 0845 BST, 0850 BST, 0855 BST and 0900 BST. On Monday, financial markets in the UK are closed for the early May bank holiday, while markets in Japan remain closed for Golden Week.