LONDON: London’s FTSE 100 recorded its longest weekly winning streak since November on Friday, although investors fret that an overheating economy could lead the central bank to pull back asset purchases earlier than expected.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 ended 0.4% higher, led by healthcare stocks, up 2.1%.
While dollar-earning consumer staples stocks, including Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser Group, British American Tobacco and Diageo Plc gained between 0.5% and 0.8%.
The domestically focussed mid-cap index advanced 0.2% to hit a record high with British engineering company Babcock leading the gains.
Babcock jumped 6.4% to the top of the mid-cap index after it agreed to sell its consultancy unit Frazer-Nash for 293 million pounds ($404.5 million) in cash. “All eyes are going to be on the Jackson Hole events in a couple of weeks time and on the central bank in the US to see what are the plans regarding to the tapering,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.
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