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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