The London stock market will be looking to breach the psychological 5,000-points barrier again next week, when the Bank of England appears set to keep interest rates on hold at 4.75 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading London shares closed at 4,999.4 points on Friday, up 13.1 points, or 0.26 percent, from the previous week. It had closed at 5,011 points on Wednesday, the highest finish since March 7.
"I think that we can expect the markets to move ahead in the next week," said Mike Lenhoff, analyst at Brewin Dolphin Securities.
"The (economic) numbers in the eurozone and in the UK are disappointing, but numbers that are coming from the US, apart from today's numbers, have been generally okay."
"I think the markets are now in a phase were they want to move ahead, the momentum is very positive."
The United States last month recorded the weakest rate of job creation since August 2003, the government said Friday.
The world's biggest economy created just 78,000 more jobs in May, the smallest rise in 21 months and down from 274,000 in April, according to the Labor Department's closely watched non-farms payroll report.
Next Thursday the Bank of England decides interest rates, with economists widely expecting it to keep rates on hold for the 10th month in a row. "Data and survey evidence (in Britain) have been consistently disappointing over the last couple of months, particularly relating to consumer spending and the manufacturing sector," Global Insight analyst Howard Archer said.
On the results front, next week sees a first-quarter trading update from Royal Bank of Scotland on Tuesday.
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