The FTSE 100 is seen flat ahead of the long awaited non-farm payrolls data, which will be out in the US today.
The UK blue chip index lost 0.35% on Thursday.
Hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG) and retailer Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS) led the blue chips with gains of 5%. Fashion house Burberry (LON:BRBY) followed, climbing 2.5%. RSA Insurance Group (LON:RSA) and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) added nearly 2%. Commercial property company Land Securities (LON:LAND) and interdealer broker ICAP (LON:IAP) moved up 1.6%.
Base metal miners Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ) and Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) were at the bottom of the pile with losses of 5.5% and 5% respectively. African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) and oil and gas producer Cairn Energy (LON:CNE) lost more than 4%. Plumbing and heating equipment manufacturer Wolseley (LON:WOS) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) each dropped 3.5%.
US stocks didn’t show much movement yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index were down 0.2%, while the technology heavy NASDAQ composite posted a small gain.
Asian stocks were mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.75% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rallied 3.3%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.5%, South Korea’s KOSPI declined 0.4% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.2%.
Commodities
Oil prices were slightly higher. US light, sweet crude for November delivery rose to US$81.72/barrel.
Gold declined to US$1,332/oz. Silver and platinum rose to US$22.54/oz and US$1,696/oz respectively.
Base metals headed in different directions. Copper rose to US$3.69/lb, while nickel declined to US$10.92/lb and zinc held steady at US$1.016/lb.