The London equities markets were lower on Friday, with the FTSE 100 down 0.2 percent to 6,149.5. The FTSE 250 dropped 0.1 percent to 11,556.4. Only 2.6 billion shares traded hands in a day of light trade. Despite the slow day and the declines, the 100 added 0.6 percent over the full week and the 250 was up 0.3 percent over the five sessions.
The retail sector saw gains. After an upgrade from “sell” to “buy” from Societe Generale, Kingfisher added 3.5 percent to 259½p. The broker also raised Kingfisher’s target share price to 342p. Next gained 1.8 percent to £20.93, also on an upgrade. Goldman Sachs raised its rating on the clothing retailer from “neutral” to “buy”, calling it a consolidation target.
Caterer Compass gained 0.9 percent to 312p after issuing a positive trading update.
Amvescap was 1.5 percent higher to 632p after it said it was thinking about changing its primary lisitng to the US. The fund manager, which is in process of changing its name to Invesco, does the vast majority of its business in North America. Citigroup said that if Amvescap does switch its listing, share prices could go up. Currently its share price is around 20 percent lower than US rivals such as T Rowe Price.
In the media sector, Gcap Media dropped 9.9 percent to 217p after UBS placed 13.6 million shares of the owner of Capital Radio for an institutional client at a price of 225p. That number of shares represents 8.2 percent of the company.