By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group
PLC on Friday surged on stronger-than-expected earnings, a strong
note in an otherwise down day for U.K. stocks.
Meanwhile, U.K. economic growth expanded in the second quarter
to above precrisis levels.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 6,791.55, reversing earlier gains. The
index logged a weekly gain of 0.6%.
Shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC jumped 11% as the
lender said operating profit climbed for the second quarter and
that bad-debt impairment charges for the year would be lower than
expected.
Vodafone Group PLC shares gained 2.1%, with the mobile-phone
industry heavyweight saying there's signs of stabilization in some
key European markets, even as quarterly revenue grew at a
lower-than-expected pace
But BSkyB shares led decliners on the index, with a 5.5%
pullback after the British broadcaster said it would pay 4.9
billion pounds ($8.3 billion) to buy Sky Italia and a 57.4% stake
in Sky Deutschland from 21st Century Fox Inc.(NWS). The deal paves
the way for BSkyB to create a pay-TV business across Europe.
Grabbing attention off the FTSE 100, shares of Balfour Beatty
PLC jumped 8.9% as the construction and services company said it is
in preliminary merger talks with rival Carillion PLC . Carillion
shares climbed 6.3%.
On the data front, the U.K. Office for National Statistics
estimated U.K. gross domestic product rose by 0.8% in the second
quarter, from the first quarter. The first estimate from the ONS,
which met economists' expectations, indicates output in the U.K. is
back above the last peak, seen in the first quarter of 2008.
Year-over-year, GDP rose 3.1%.
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