LONDON MARKETS: U.K. Stocks Gain; EasyJet Posts Traffic Growth

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks rose Friday, poised for their third straight week of gains, with EasyJet PLC cruising among the session's best performers as it filled more of its airline seats.

The FTSE 100 picked up 0.5% to 6,684.63, and headed for a 1% weekly rise.

The FTSE, along with other major European equity indexes, held to higher ground after the U.S. Labor Department said the economy created 192,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7%, as more than a half-million people joined the labor force in search of work. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected an increase of 200,000 nonfarm jobs, and a dip in the unemployment rate to 6.6%. Employment gains for February and January were revised higher.

Contributing to FTSE 100's rise were shares of EasyJet PLC , up 2.4% after the company said the number of passengers it carried in March rose 4.8% to 5.1 million from the same month a year ago. Load factor, or the percentage of seats filled with passengers, rose to 91.5% from 90.5% a year earlier.

EasyJet's March traffic suggests momentum, said Credit Suisse analyst Neil Glynn in a note Friday. With volumes for carrier Ryanair Holdings PLC down due to the timing of the Easter holiday, "we consider this a strong performance on a tough comparative," Glynn wrote.

Also advancing in London, shares of British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group were up 2.3%.

Miners, banks and insurers were also higher, including a 2.9% rise for RSA Insurance Group

But losing ground were shares of Tesco PLC , down 1.1%, following a Financial Times report that the grocer's finance director, Laurie McIlwee, will resign as early as next week as the company faces another steep drop in profit.

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