LONDON: UK stocks started weaker. FTSE 100 tumbled 14 to 16 points or 0.2 percent, on Friday.
The blue-chip index ended 0.1 percent higher at 6,865.93 points on Thursday after falling to an intra-day low of 6,808.19 points earlier in the session.
U.S. job growth likely remained firm in January, with a rebound in wages, supporting views that consumers will have enough muscle to carry the economy through tough times. Nonfarm payrolls probably increased 234,000 last month after advancing by 252,000 in December, according to a Reuter’s survey.
Union leaders rejected a sixth contract offer Royal Dutch Shell made to U.S. refinery workers, and a pause in negotiations was called Thursday on the fifth day of a strike, though talks are set to resume next week.
A panel of British lawmakers has accused drug maker Shire and accountancy firm PwC of extensive tax avoidance and urged the government to tighten regulation of corporate tax advisers to curb the practice.
The drug maker said that results from the phase III Combi-D study were positive.
The British ingredients company warned that its annual profits would come in below the range it forecast in September, hit by a weak performance in sweeteners in the third quarter.
British discount retailer Pound land said on Friday it has agreed to buy smaller rival 99p Stores Ltd for an enterprise value of 55 million pounds ($84 million).
Outsourcing company Capita has been chosen by Britain’s state-funded healthcare service to provide support services such as IT, back-office finance and HR services worth up to 5 billion pounds ($7.66 billion) to a number of clinical commissioning groups.Britain’s telecoms regulator Ofcom published a draft statement on its review of mobile call termination market saying termination rates will fall further in real terms.
Crude oil prices raised more than $1 a barrel on Friday, continuing a rebound from near-six-year lows plumbed last week, although no rapid recovery is expected amid rising global inventories and steady OPEC supply.
London copper edged up ahead of U.S. jobs data and was set to notch up its biggest weekly gain in more than two years, riding in the slipstream of a rebound in crude oil prices.
