FTSE 100 Inches Higher In Cautious Trade; Miners Underperform
(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks advanced on Friday and were on track for a fifth weekly gain.
Healthcare and consumer staple stocks rose, offsetting losses in the mining sector.
Investors shrugged off disappointing retail sales figures for March, with poor weather impacting sales across almost all sectors.
The volume of retail sales including motor fuel decreased 0.9 percent from the previous month, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed while economists had forecast a 0.5 percent fall.
The latest decline came after two months of growth. February's gain was revised down to 1.1 percent from 1.2 percent.
Elsewhere, results of the monthly survey by the market research group GfK showed that the U.K. consumer confidence improved for a third month in a row as people were less pessimistic regarding the outlook for their own financial situation and that of the economy.
The GfK consumer confidence index for the U.K. climbed to -30 in April, which was the highest reading since February last year, just before the start of the war in Ukraine. Economists were looking for a score of -35.
Miners Anglo American and Antofagasta lost 2-3 percent as commodity prices declined on worries about slowing global growth.
Glencore was down about 1 percent after reporting Q1 production in line with expectations.
Social housing energy services provider Sureserve soared 37 percent after it agreed to a 214.1 million-pound ($266.4 million) takeover by Cap10 4NetZero Bidco Ltd.
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