London’s FTSE 100 staged a comeback on Friday as it regained losses from earlier in the day, despite disappointing new data leaving a sour taste for top retailers.
The blue-chip index ended the day 18.8 points higher, or 0.24%, at 7,895.85.
JD Sports, B&M and Marks & Spencer were among the biggest fallers of the day after new official data showed there was no growth in retail sales in March, with food sales falling and department stores seeing higher prices hit trading.
The FTSE had been trading more than 0.5% lower during the morning amid a wider reaction from European stock markets to an apparent retaliation by Israel on Iran.
A drone attack was reportedly aimed at the Iranian city of Isfahan overnight, heightening regional tensions since Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel last Saturday.
It sent oil prices higher on Friday morning, but they retreated in the afternoon as the US and UK called for calm in the Middle East.
Elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s Dax was down 0.53% and France’s Cac edged 0.01% lower at close.
In the US, it was a mixed start to trading with the S&P 500 down about 0.4% and Dow Jones up 0.45% by the time European markets closed.
It was a weak session for the pound which fell nearly 0.3% against the US dollar to 1.24, and 0.4% against the euro to 1.1636.
In company news, the FTSE 100 was pulled in both directions after packaging firm Mondi said it had abandoned a possible bid to buy DS Smith, meaning it walks away from a bidding battle with US rival International Paper.
International Paper sealed the deal when it offered £5.8 billion to buy the firm, which DS Smith said on Tuesday it had agreed to.
Investors appeared to be pleased that Mondi had walked away, and its share price jumped by 9.3% on Friday. DS Smith tumbled to the bottom of the index with shares down by 10.3%.
Elsewhere, shares in 888 were given a boost after the gambling group said its revenues beat forecasts over the latest quarter.
It told shareholders that it had a good number of players which had helped improve sales, and described the latest three-month period as a “strong quarter”. Its share price moved 4.8% higher at close.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Mondi, up 128p to 1,504.5p, Rentokil, up 9.8p to 422.7p, CocaCola HBC, up 46p to 2,456p, Entain, up 13.2p to 837.4p, and Compass Group, up 34p to 2,203p.
The biggest fallers were DS Smith, down 41p to 358.6p, JD Sports, down 3.35p to 116.95p, B&M European, down 9.6p to 510.4p, Marks & Spencer, down 4.4p to 245.8p, and Rolls-Royce, down 7p to 395.5p.