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Britain's FTSE 100 index ended lower on Friday as banks and oil shares weighed, although Enterprise Inns jumped on hopes of becoming a low-tax real estate investment trust. The blue chip FTSE 100 index closed down 24.6 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,692.9, for a weekly gain of 3.6 percent - the biggest weekly rise since July 2006.
But the UK benchmark index is still down more than 11 percent for the year on concerns about a US recession, and is on course for its worst quarter since the third quarter of 2002 and its third consecutive quarter of losses. "If you believe there is more to come, then this is a precursor. If you think things are stabilising, then it's pretty good that we are not just doing this 200-point range in the afternoon. It's pretty good that we are having a quiet day," said Tom Hougaard, chief market strategist at City Index Markets.
"I am a subscriber of the latter. I do believe things are calming down a bit," he said. Major European indexes also finished the day lower. Pub group Enterprise Inns surged 12.6 percent after it said it expected to be able to convert into a low-tax real estate investment trust, overshadowing news that trading remains tough.
Banks suffered, with HBOS down 3.1 percent, Alliance & Leicester shedding 3.2 percent, Standard Chartered losing 1.7 percent and Lloyds TSB off 1.8 percent. Index heavyweight oil shares eased, tracking weaker crude prices. BP was down 1.8 percent, while Royal Dutch Shell eased 0.2 percent and Tullow Oil dipped 1.9 percent.
Also on the downside, builders came under pressure after being buoyed by bid speculation in the previous session, as traders cited profittaking and data which showed that British house prices fell for the fifth consecutive month in March.
Persimmon topped the losers' list on the FTSE 100, down 5.1 percent, while Taylor Wimpey dropped 0.7 percent and Barratt Developments lost 6.2 percent. Miners were mixed, with Vedanta Resources advancing 3.2 percent, Anglo American up 1 percent and Antofagasta adding 2.7 percent. But Xstrata slipped 2.3 percent and Kazakhmys eased 0.6 percent.
Food producers fell after Dairy Crest Group warned about a rise in raw material costs and said unprecedented milk price increases meant it would make a loss on one supply contract. Dairy Crest shed nearly 10 percent. Cadbury Schweppes dropped 2.8 percent and Associated British Foods lost 1.2 percent.
Sainsbury fell 3 percent. Lehman Brothers reiterated its "underweight" rating on the supermarket chain, saying Sainsbury's pricing flexibility remained limited compared with its main competitors.
Shares in British Airways slipped 2.9 percent after chaos at the opening of its new Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow airport led it to cancel a fifth of scheduled departures there, and amid jitters ahead of Sunday's start of the "open skies" deal to create greater competition on trans-Atlantic routes.

Copyright Reuters, 2008

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