FTSE 100 Modestly Lower In Cautious Trade
(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are drifting lower in cautious trade Friday morning, after rising to record highs in the previous session, as investors await the release of U.S. non-farm payroll data for some clues about the Federal Reserve's likely move on interest rates.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 26.72 or 0.31% at 8700.56 a little while ago.
Legal & General is rising nearly 5.5%. The stock is up following the life insurer agreeing to sell its U.S. protection business to Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company for $2.3 billion.
Hiscox is up 1.85%, while Glencore, BP, Vodafone, LondonMetric Property and BAE Systems are up 0.9 to 1.25%.
Endeavour Mining, Coca-Cola HBC, DCC, Compass Group, Anglo American Plc, IAG, Kingfisher and British American Tobacco are modestly higher.
Barratt Redrow is declining more than 3.5%. Marks & Spencer is down 3% and Mondi is lower by about 2.7%.
Taylor Wimpey, ICP, Persimmon, Howeden Joinery, GSK, Auto Trader Group, Entain, Berkeley Group Holdings, AstraZeneca and Diploma are down 1.5 to 2.3%. Barclays Group and Next are also notably lower.
UK house prices grew more than expected in January to hit a record high as buyer demand increased ahead of the stamp duty hike in April, mortgage lender Halifax said Friday.
House prices increased 0.7% in January from December, reversing a 0.2% drop in the previous month. The monthly growth was also faster than economists' forecast of 0.4%.
On a yearly basis, growth in house prices moderated to 3% from 3.4% in December. This was the slowest growth since last July. Average property prices hit a record GBP 299,138 in January.
Higher Open Called For Thai Stock Market
Indonesia Shares Tipped To Open In The Green
Japanese Market Notably Higher
Hong Kong Bourse May Reverse Thursday's Losses
China Shares Tipped To Open To The Upside On Friday
Australian Market Notably Higher
Taiwan Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Green
