Equity markets strong in London and New York

Equities markets were up for the day and week in London on Friday, as was the FTSE Eurofirst 500, while Tokyo was down. In New York, meanwhile, stocks were down for the day at mid-session, but looked to be headed for an up week overall.

In London, the FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent to close at 4,971.8 for the day, with an overall rise of 1.8 percent on the week. The FTSE 250 rose 0.1 percent to 6,934.3, to bring the week’s gain to 2.1 percent. There were 2.7 billion shares traded on the day.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 gained 1.4 percent on the week to end at 1,092.68, which was a one-month high. Much of the Eurofirst’s success for the day rested on technology stocks.

In Tokyo, reaction to a decision by the Bank of Japan to temporarily ease its liquidity targets had a slight effect on the markets as some analysts said that the move could be a lead-in to a tightening of monetary policy, but the nation’s finance minister said that policy change was not being contemplated.

The Nikkei 225 was down 0.4 percent on the day to close at 11,037.29, while the Topix index fell 0.1 percent, closing at 1,129.81. Mid-day saw the New York markets slightly down.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4 percent to 10,447.60, the S&P 500 had lost 0.3 percent to 1,187.29, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.2 percent lower to 2,037.90.

However, the Dow looked to be heading for a 3 percent rise for the week, while the S&P 500 was expected to end the week 2.9 percent higher, and the Nasdaq seemed to be poised to close 3 percent higher on the week. These would be the best weekly performances on Wall Street since November.

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