Despite a good showing on Wall Street last night thanks to better-than-expected US GDP figures, Friday was a damp squib for European stocks, with little change on the main indices.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “The FTSE 100 nudged up 0.1% to 7,769, with energy companies doing their best to lift the index, although the drag from miners was proving hard to beat.
“In mainland Europe, fashion retailer H&M disappointed with its latest quarterly numbers, sending the share price down 6.6%. Cost pressures, weak consumer confidence and loss of its Russian operations were blamed. Luxury goods group LVMH was also in the doghouse after failing to improve margins.
“In the UK, nearly-new car seller Motorpoint slipped 2% after flagging weaker demand and saying a drop in the value in electric vehicles and fewer car finance deals will hurt profits.”
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