UK stocks closed higher on Friday, with the blue-chip FTSE 100 rising 0.3% to 10,824.26 points and ending the week nearly flat. The midcap FTSE 250 added 0.2% to 24,938.79 points, recording a weekly gain of nearly 1%.
Investors digested corporate updates and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh at the Jackson Hole symposium. Warsh said the U.S. central bank will "have work to do" if policymakers don't get the confidence they need that inflation is heading down to 2%. Markets interpreted the remark as an acknowledgement that interest rate hikes may be needed to ease price pressures.
U.S. stocks were mixed, while the dollar gained as traders priced in nearly a 60% chance of a September rate increase, up from 35% a day earlier, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. Still, investors have been paring back expectations of a Bank of England rate hike this year.
Oil prices dipped, with Brent crude trading around $89 a barrel as traders monitored a deadlock in U.S.-Iran diplomacy. [O/R]
British businesses turned the most confident since March this month, bolstered by a rosier view of the economy, according to a survey that echoes other signs of an improving outlook.
Among individual stocks, Goodwin climbed 1.4% after the mechanical engineering company reported full-year trading profit of £77.50 million ($105.3 million), more than double from a year ago. Recruiter Hays rose about 5.1% after Panmure Liberum upgraded the stock to "buy" from "hold".
