LONDON MARKETS: London Stocks End Higher, With House Builders Taking The Lead

By Emily Horton

Two former Tesco executives acquitted in fraud trial

The London stock market bounced back following Thursday's Wall Street recovery, but still suffered its biggest weekly loss since October.

And all three U.S. benchmarks slumped (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-look-set-to-sink-ahead-of-key-friday-jobs-report-2018-12-07) Friday on worries over trade policy, posting their biggest weekly percentage declines since March.

U.K. housebuilders were among the top performers.

What are markets doing?

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed by 1.1% to end at 6,778.11, having ended up 0.5% on Thursday. For the week, the index fell 2.9%, the biggest such fall since the week ending Oct. 12.

The British pound dropped to $1.2750 from $1.2782 late on Thursday.

What is driving the market?

U.S. markets snapped back sharply on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported (https://www.wsj.com/articles/restrained-inflation-reduces-urgency-for-quarterly-rate-increase-pattern-1544127856?mod=mktw) the Federal Reserve was weighing taking a wait-and-see approach after a likely rate increase at their December meeting, with the Nasdaq Composite actually finishing higher by 0.4% to 7,188.

Which stocks were active?

Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN) rose 2.7% after two former Tesco executives were acquitted in a fraud trial.

House builder Berkeley Group Holdings PLC (BKG.LN) gained 1.1% after pledging to continue return cash to shareholders, despite a substantial drop in earnings in the first half of the financial year reported on Friday.

Associated British Foods PLC (ABF.LN) was on the losing end of the market, shedding 4.6% after the company said trading at its key Primark business was "challenging" in November.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 07, 2018 16:42 ET (21:42 GMT)

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