LONDON: The UK’s FTSE 100 fell on Friday as lower oil prices pulled down heavyweight energy stocks, but both the benchmark index and the FTSE 250 posted weekly gains as hopes that the end of the global monetary tightening cycle is nearing boosted risk appetite.
The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 closed 0.4% lower but snapped a two-week losing streak with a gain of 1.7% since Monday. The mid-cap index rose 1.2% on Friday to post its strongest weekly performance in nearly a year, up 6.6%.
The oil and gas sector fell the most, down 3.4% as it tracked a more than 1% fall in oil prices as supply concerns driven by the Middle East conflict eased and top importer China’s demand outlook remained uncertain.
At the other end of the scale, precious metal miners rose nearly 4% tracking gold prices which rose as the dollar weakened.
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