By Dominic Lau
LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 .FTSE
index ended lower on Friday as banks and oil shares weighed,
although Enterprise Inns (ETI.L: Quote, Profile, Research) jumped on hopes of becoming a
low-tax real estate investment trust.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed down 24.6 points, or 0.4
percent, at 5,692.9, for a weekly gain of 3.6 percent — the
biggest weekly rise since July 2006.
But the UK benchmark index is still down more than 11
percent for the year on concerns about a U.S. recession, and is
on course for its worst quarter since the third quarter of 2002
and its third consecutive quarter of losses.
“If you believe there is more to come, then this is a
precursor. If you think things are stabilising, then it’s pretty
good that we are not just doing this 200-point range in the
afternoon. It’s pretty good that we are having a quiet day,”
said Tom Hougaard, chief market strategist at City Index
Markets.
“I am a subscriber of the latter. I do believe things are
calming down a bit,” he said.
Major European indexes also finished the day lower.
Pub group Enterprise Inns surged 12.6 percent after it said
it expected to be able to convert into a low-tax real estate
investment trust, overshadowing news that trading remains tough.
Banks suffered, with HBOS (HBOS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) down 3.1 percent,
Alliance %26amp; Leicester (ALLL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) shedding 3.2 percent, Standard
Chartered (STAN.L: Quote, Profile, Research) losing 1.7 percent and Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L: Quote, Profile, Research)
off 1.8 percent.
Index heavyweight oil shares eased, tracking weaker crude
prices CLc1. BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) was down 1.8 percent, while Royal Dutch
Shell (RDSb.L: Quote, Profile, Research) eased 0.2 percent and Tullow Oil (TLW.L: Quote, Profile, Research) dipped
1.9 percent. Continued…
