BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks rose on Friday and remained on track to snap a six-day losing streak amid bets the U.S. Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates at a policy meeting later this month. Reassuring export data out of China also underpinned investor sentiment.
China's exports fell 1.3 percent on a yearly basis in June, slightly slower than the 1.4 percent drop economists had forecast. At the same time, imports slid 7.3 percent annually versus the expected fall of 4.6 percent in June.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 23 points or 0.31 percent at 7,532 after six days of losses.
Financials were moving higher, with HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland rising between 0.4 percent and 1 percent.
Advertising giant WPP gained 0.7 percent after it agreed to sell 60 percent of Kantar, its global data, research, consulting and analytics business, to Bain Capital.
Thomas Cook shares plunged 49 percent on news the troubled travel firm is in £750m rescue talks with banks and its largest shareholder, Fosun Tourism.
AstraZeneca shed 0.8 percent and GlaxoSmithKline eased 0.3 percent after the White House scrapped a key plan to lower prescription medicine prices.
Hiscox tumbled 4.8 percent. The specialist insurer said catastrophes helped to deteriorate the global insurance market.
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