London close: Stocks buoyed by banking, mining positivity
London's equity markets closed positively on Friday, buoyed by gains in the banking sector following better-than-expected results from NatWest.
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London's equity markets closed positively on Friday, buoyed by gains in the banking sector following better-than-expected results from NatWest.
Shore Capital reiterated its 'buy' rating on bank NatWest after a forecast-beating first quarter but said it sees the least amount of upside potential in the stock compared with the wider banking sector.
The UK competition watchdog has stepped up its scrutiny of big tech involvement in artificial intelligence startups, asking for comment on three deals by Microsoft and Amazon. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it was examining Microsoft’s investment in the French firm Mistral and the hiring of the DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman as head of the US company’s new AI division. The watchdog is also scrutinising Amazon’s $4bn (£3.2bn) investment in the US AI firm Anthropic. – Guardian
WH Smith said on Thursday that it was on track to deliver on expectations for the year after a "good" first half.
Cyclicals and interest rate-sensitive areas of the market came under pressure in the middle of the week as longer-term Gilt yields continued moving higher.