Footsie ends tough week on a high note

London’s top-flight index rebounded as a stronger US dollar took the edge off sterling’s rally and encouraged investors to snap up multinational stocks.

The FTSE 100 index closed up 49.70 points at 7,665.54, with the American dollar finding some support after US president Donald Trump indicated his preference for a strong US currency. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also pulled back on comments suggesting he was in favour of a weaker US dollar that would boost overseas trade.

Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said that the US dollar saw losses ease despite “far worse than forecast” American economic data.

A better-than-expected performance from the UK economy was helping to boost the pound, with gross domestic product (GDP) growing by 0.5 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) initial estimate for the fourth quarter.

The biggest impact came from the services sector, which grew 0.6 per cent quarter on quarter, largely driven by business and financial services from the likes of lawyers, architects and business administrators.

However, the ONS said longer-term trends were pointing to a broader slowdown.

Investors cheered Glaxosmithkline after the drugs giant was handed a “positive opinion” from European regulators over its shingles drug, Shingrix. Shares climbed 20p to 1,355p.

HICL Infrastructure fell 6.4p to 141.1p over a warning on loan agreement defaults linked to the collapse of Carillion.