The FTSE 100 dipped 0.35% to 6,713.40 on Friday morning. “Strength among banking and energy stocks wasn’t enough to offset weakness in miners and housebuilders, the latter falling after a gloomy update from Berkeley Group,” says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
“It’s not quite the end to the week that investors had hoped, with markets across Europe failing to sustain yesterday’s positive momentum,” “However, markets are still ahead on the week and the recent sell-off in tech stocks looks like it has stabilised which is important for investor sentiment,” Mould adds.
FTSE 100 Top Movers
Burberry (6.07%) headed up the FTSE 100 on Friday, followed by Barclays (2.51%) and M&G (2.10%).
Berkley (-5.91%), Fresnillo (-3.52%) and WPP Group (-2.71%) were the index’s biggest fallers prior to Friday lunchtime.
Burberry
Burberry has said it expects its full-year profits to exceed expectations following a resurgence in its sales over recent months. In an impromptu trading update on Friday the luxury brand confirmed its same-store retail sales are expected to be between 28% and 32% higher compared to the year prior. Burberry also confirmed it anticipates its full-year revenue to fall between 10% and 11%. Analysts forecasted a 13% decline at constant exchange rates.
Shares in the FTSE 100 company were up over 8 per cent in early London trading.
Berkley
Russ Mould commented on Berkley’s resilient performance during the pandemic.
“Of all the housebuilders Berkeley seems the least bullish. A flat performance in its financial year to February 2021 is testament to how impressively the business recovered from the pandemic in the second half.”
“But while Berkeley still has strong levels of enquiry it is phasing developments to coincide with a reopening of the economy. This may look very clever in time if it sees Berkeley deliver a smoother flow of profit and cash flow than its peers, many of which seem to be operating at 100 miles an hour.”