The FTSE 100 closed up 0.18% at 5,322 on Friday. Early losses were reversed after positive employment data from the US lifted the markets. The gains left the index 2.5% higher for the week.
Defensive stocks put in a strong showing, with AstraZeneca and GSK among the day's highest climbers, up 2.6% and 2.2% respectively. Brewer SABMiller rose 2%, while tobacco groups BAT and Imperial added 1.6% and 1.5% respectively.
Miners suffered from softer metals prices: Xstrata fell 3.4%, Antofagasta 2.3% and BHP Billiton fell 2.1%. Worst performer of the day was gold miner Randgold Resources, which lost 4.3%.
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Europe
In Europe, the Paris CAC 40 rose 48 points to 3,847; and the German Xetra Dax was 47 points higher at 5,818.
US
In the US, the Dow Jones rose 0.2% to 10,388; the S&P 500 added 0.6% to 1,105; and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1% to 2,194. The Dow was up 0.8% for the week, the S&P 500 1.3% and the Nasdaq 2.6%.
Asia
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.5% to close at 10,167; and the broader Topix index added 1.1% to 989. In China, the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.5% to 3,331; and the CSI 300 gained 0.7% to 3,668.
Commodities
Brent spot was trading at $77.12 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $75.22. Spot gold was trading at $1,144 an ounce, silver was at $18.03 and platinum was at $1,428
Currencies
In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.6336 and against the euro at 1.1055. The dollar was trading at 0.6769 against the euro and 90.00 against the Japanese yen.
UK news
And today, a report from the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) warns that the UK could slip from the top ten of the world's economies by 2015. The CEBR says Britain has already fallen to seventh, behind China, Italy and France, and could soon be overtaken by Russia, Brazil India and Canada.
