The stock index of the UK’s biggest publicly-listed companies edged higher on Friday after concerns eased over the state of the US economy.
The FTSE 100, which is made up of the country’s biggest businesses including banks, airlines and housebuilders, rose in early trading.
It follows stronger trading in the US where stock markets had their best day in almost two years on Thursday.
Global financial markets have been spooked in the past seven days over fears that world’s biggest economy could be heading for a slowdown.
But on Thursday, official data revealed US unemployment claims rose by less than expected.
The benchmark S&P 500 index ended the day 2.3% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.8%, and the Nasdaq jumped 2.9%.
In London, the FTSE 100 ticked up 0.7%. Stock markets indexes in Paris and Frankfurt followed a similar path.
Stocks in Asia made modest gains, recovering some of the losses after Japanese indexes had their…
