LONDON: London’s FTSE 100 ended higher on Friday as utilities shares rose and energy giants gained, tracking higher crude oil prices amid escalating Middle East tensions, while the focus was on politics as Andy Burnham became the British Labour Party leader.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index gained 0.3 percent at 10,600.4 points, while the midcap FTSE 250 dipped 0.5 percent to snap a six-day winning streak. Both indexes, however, clocked weekly gains.
The United States struck bridges and an airport in Iran, provoking Tehran to respond by hitting a power and desalination plant in Kuwait.
Energy stocks gained 2.1 percent as oil prices rose
on concerns over supply disruptions.
Utilities rose 2.7 percent, leading sectoral gains, while food, beverages and tobacco added 1.6 percent.
Higher crude oil prices weighed on travel and leisure, which fell 0.9 percent.
Financial stocks were weaker with banks down 0.4 percent, while investment bank and brokerage services shed 1.5 percent.
Personal goods fell 5 percent after Burberry warned that the conflict in the Middle East was hurting tourist spending in Europe, sending shares in the British luxury brand down 6.4 percent despite strong sales growth in the United States and China during the April-June quarter.
On the political front, Burnham was elected leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party, the final step before becoming its seventh prime minister in a decade on a pledge to thwart the rise of the populist Reform UK.
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