By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Pound falls after disappointing U.K. manufacturing data

U.K. stocks rose Friday, as mining shares strengthened and Lloyds Banking Group PLC surged after quarterly results. But the pound slid following disappointing U.K. manufacturing data.

The FTSE 100 closed up 0.4% at 6,985.95, led by a more than 2% climb in the key mining sector.

The benchmark fell 1.2% on a weekly basis.

U.K. voters will hit the polls on Thursday, and opinion polls still indicate a tight race and the possibility of a hung parliament. Before the voting, the FTSE's near-term direction "remains unclear although encouragingly for the bulls, the index has found some support for a second day just ahead of the 6,900 level," wrote Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst, at Forex.com, in a note Friday.

The FTSE 100 on Thursday finished the month of April with a 2.8% gain, aided in part by energy shares as oil prices climbed to 2015 highs.

Read: Here's why oil has been rallying to highest level this year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-oil-is-rallying-to-its-highest-level-this-year-2015-04-29).

Financials: Lloyds shares topped the benchmark, with a 7.1% jump, the best since August 2013, according to FactSet data. The company posted a 21% rise in underlying profit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lloyds-profit-falls-on-tsb-sale-cost-of-1-billion-2015-05-01) to GBP2.2 billion. However, net profit fell, with Lloyds incurring a GBP660 million loss related to the sale of its TSB Banking Group PLC unit .

"Lloyds delivered a solid set of [first-quarter] numbers," said analysts at Goldman Sachs.

While Lloyds shares climbed Friday, "broader macro/political uncertainty with the coming U.K. election will likely continue to mean the stock remains constrained until then," said Credit Suisse analysts.

Banking heavyweight HSBC PLC (HSBC) will release its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday. Shares were shed 0.3% on Friday.

Meanwhile, Barclays PLC (BCS) shares slipped 0.4% after a ratings cut at Berenberg, to sell from hold. Barclays is "one of our wild cards" for this year, as it holds the potential to emerge as a long-term winner in the sector," wrote Berenberg analyst James Chappell. "Unfortunately, that change seems further away than we had hoped, as the malaise from the lackluster investment-bank strategy has worsened."

Elsewhere among financials, Prudential PLC shares fell 1%. The insurer named Mike Wells as group chief executive, effective June 1. Wells currently serves as the head of Prudential's U.S. operations. He'll will succeed Tidjane Thiam, who's taking the top job at Credit Suisse AG .

Miners: Mining stocks were pushed higher, after data showed manufacturing activity in China, a major buyer of commodities, remained in expansionary territory in April (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-manufacturing-activity-holds-steady-2015-04-30-214854532). Separately, Brazilian iron-ore producer Vale (RIO) on Thursday signaled it's considering cutting output (http://www.wsj.com/articles/brazils-vale-considers-cutting-iron-ore-output-1430412392) for the raw material that's used to produce steel.

Shares of the largest iron-ore producers, Rio Tinto PLC and BHP Billiton PLC, leapt in London. Rio Tinto (RIO) climbed 3.9%, and BHP (BHP) stepped higher by 3%. Anglo American PLC gained 5.4%.

Pound: Sterling (GBPUSD) was shoved back to $1.5144 after data showed British manufacturing activity in April fell to a seven-month low (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-manufacturing-pmi-falls-to-seven-month-low-2015-05-01). Markit's purchasing managers index fell to 51.9, from 54 in March. The pound late Thursday traded at $1.5353.

As of late, there have been "very weak economic data for the U.K. from GDP to PMI and all this creates more trouble for [Prime Minister David] Cameron," ahead of next week's election, wrote Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, in a note.

Currency traders "are going to take some profit off the table by closing most of the positions going into the long weekend and with the looming uncertainty of the U.K election," he added.

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