By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks rose Friday, notching a
third-straight week of gains, with EasyJet PLC cruising among the
session's best performers as it filled more of its airline
seats.
The FTSE 100 rose by 0.7% to 6,695.55, and closed the week up by
1.2%.
The FTSE, along with other major European equity indexes,
climbed to intraday highs after a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
report that the central bank has modeled bond buying over one year,
and that asset purchases would raise inflation by 0.2 to 0.8
percentage point.
ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday said at a news conference
that officials have discussed quantitative easing, an indication
the bank could use unconventional measures to tackle low
inflation.
U.K. stocks held to higher ground after the U.S. Labor
Department said the economy created 192,000 jobs in March, and the
unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7%, as more than a
half-million people joined the labor force in search of work.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected an increase of 200,000
jobs, and a dip in the unemployment rate to 6.6%. Employment gains
for February and January were revised higher.
Contributing to FTSE 100's rise on Friday were shares of EasyJet
PLC , up 2% after the company said the number of passengers it
carried in March rose 4.8% to 5.1 million from the same month a
year ago. Load factor, or the percentage of seats filled with
passengers, rose to 91.5% from 90.5% a year earlier.
EasyJet's March traffic suggests momentum, said Credit Suisse
analyst Neil Glynn in a note Friday. With volumes for carrier
Ryanair Holdings PLC down due to the timing of the Easter holiday,
"we consider this a strong performance on a tough comparative,"
Glynn wrote.
Also advancing in London, shares of British Airways parent
International Consolidated Airlines Group settled up by 1.5%.
Miners, banks and insurers were also higher, including a 3.5%
rise for RSA Insurance Group
But shares of Tesco PLC fell 1.5%, with the grocer saying its
chief financial officer, Laurie McIlwee, is resigning from the
company and the board. The statement came after a Financial Times
report that McIlwee was preparing to step down as early as next
week as the company faces another steep drop in profit. McIlwee
will remain in his role until the board finds his successor.
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