FTSE 100 closes on the front foot, with AstraZeneca the top riser
Footsie finished Friday ahead by around eight points, or 0.12%, at 6,969,
FTSE 100 closes around eight points higher
AstraZeneca top blue-chip riser
5.05pm: FTSE closes ahead
FTSE 100 closed on the front foot at the end of the trading week, with drugs giant and much-in-the-news COVID-19 vaccine producer AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) the top dog.
Footsie finished ahead by around eight points, or 0.12%, at 6,969, with the psychologically significant 7,000 level now coming back into view.
Over the week as a whole , the FTSE 100 added around 0.45%.
AstraZeneca shares closed up over 4% at 7,715p as traders welcomed an upbeat first quarterly results statement, which showed sales of US$7.3 billion, around 15% higher compared to the first quarter of 2020.
Card Factory moves higher after physical stores do better than expected
A look at Friday s major share movers on the London Stock Exchange
Card Factory PLC (LON:CARD) added 7% to 84.3p before close after announcing that performance following the reopening of stores in England and Wales has topped expectations.
Sites in Scotland will resume trading on 26 April while those in Northern Ireland have reopened today.
The greeting cards retailer has also headline terms for refinancing with its banks, with more details to be released soon. The banks also extended waivers in respect of anticipated covenant breaches to 31 May 2021, taking account of the company s cash flow projections.
FTSE 100 closes on the front foot, with AstraZeneca the top riser
Footsie finished Friday ahead by around eight points, or 0.12%, at 6,969,
FTSE 100 closes around eight points higher
AstraZeneca top blue-chip riser
5.05pm: FTSE closes ahead
FTSE 100 closed on the front foot at the end of the trading week, with drugs giant and much-in-the-news COVID-19 vaccine producer AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) the top dog.
Footsie finished ahead by around eight points, or 0.12%, at 6,969, with the psychologically significant 7,000 level now coming back into view.
Over the week as a whole , the FTSE 100 added around 0.45%.
AstraZeneca shares closed up over 4% at 7,715p as traders welcomed an upbeat first quarterly results statement, which showed sales of US$7.3 billion, around 15% higher compared to the first quarter of 2020.
Proactive news headlines: Gfinity, Synairgen, Chaarat Gold, Destiny Pharma.
A glance at some of the day s highlights from the Proactive Investors newswire
Gfinity PLC (LON:GFIN) said it has acquired Drawnite.com, a fan website for the video game Fortnite in another expansion of its digital media arm.
Genedrive PLC (LON:GDR) said its COVID-19 PCR test has been approved by Indian regulator after the 96 SARS-CoV-2 kit achieved 100% sensitivity and specificity in the performance evaluation conducted by the country’s Council of Medical Research.
Enteq Upstream PLC (LON:NTQ) said it landed a new US$1.1mln rental contract from an existing North American customer. The customer will rent Enteq s core Measurement While Drilling (MWD) technology for a minimum of eight months.