UKX FTSE 100 Index

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

U.K. stocks slipped Friday, wrapping up what's likely to be a losing week for blue-chips by focusing on corporate updates, with Royal Bank of Scotland PLC hit after results while a potential deal lifted publisher Pearson PLC.

How markets are moving

The FTSE 100 index shed 0.2% to 7,240.77, on course for a second day in the red. Health care and tech stocks fell the most while the telecom, utility and oil and gas groups moved higher. On Thursday, the index fell 0.4% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-slumps-1-as-fed-signals-faster-pace-of-rate-hikes-2018-02-22).

The pound fetched $1.3966, up from $1.3957 late Thursday in New York.

What's driving markets

Investors appeared to focus on the pile of earnings reports and updates coming in on the last day of the week. For the week, the FTSE 100 was poised to fall 0.7%, and that would be its fifth losing week in six.

Equities this week have largely been keying off moves on Wall Street, which was the epicenter of the global rout in stocks earlier this month. U.S. stock futures were surging Friday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-surge-over-100-points-2018-02-23) after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Thursday with gains (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-slide-more-than-100-points-as-fed-driven-jitters-persist-2018-02-22), although they ended off their intraday highs. The Nasdaq , however, fell.

Stock movers

RBS shares (RBS.LN) (RBS.LN) dropped 3.9% as the lender said it swung to its first full-year profit in 10 years in 2017. However, the bank said it still has to resolve a settlement (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rbs-posts-first-full-year-profit-in-a-decade-as-litigation-costs-drop-2018-02-23) with the U.S. Department of Justice over alleged mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities.

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA shares (IAG.LN) (IAG.LN) fell 3.9%. The British Airways parent said it was engaging a EUR500 million euros share-buyback program (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iag-profit-rises-to-launch-500-million-buyback-2018-02-23), and that pretax profit rose in 2017. The results were "mixed," said Accendo Markets, with revenues in line while adjusted per-share earnings of EUR1.02 fell short of a EUR1.06 consensus estimate.

Pearson shares (PSON.LN) climbed 3.4% as the company said it's talking with potential buyers for its U.S. K-12 curriculum business, which Pearson said last year it was considering disposing. Pearson swung to a pretax profit in 2017 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pearson-returns-to-profit-in-2017-cuts-dividend-2018-02-23-3485241), but cut its dividend for the year.

BT Group PLC (BT.A.LN) (BT.A.LN) gained 3.8% after an upgrade to buy from hold at Berenberg.

What strategists are saying

"As we move towards the end of the week, markets are beginning to look more settled. The spike higher on U.S. Treasury yields in the wake of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes has calmed down with the U.S. 10 year yield around 2.92%," said Richard Perry, market analyst at Hantec Markets, in a note.

"The volatility in the equity markets which drove such a fearful reaction in recent weeks is also settling down and we are now seeing more of a truncated outlook where trends are being replaced by a broader phase of choppy consolidation," he said.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 23, 2018 04:15 ET (09:15 GMT)

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