The pound continued its strong growth against the US dollar, as confidence in the UK's vaccine rollout appears to be gaining traction.
Sterling surged above $1.40 for the first time since April 2018 and was up 0.34% at $1.402 on the day as stock markets in Europe closed. It was also up 0.36% against the euro at 1.214.
Typically, the internationally-focused FTSE 100 falls when the pound strengthens, but it too closed the day up 6.87 points, or 0.1%, at 6624.02. In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt both ended up 0.8%.
A slew of economic data for the UK failed to dampen spirits, including heavy falls in retail sales in January, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the first January deficit in 10 years and UK flash PMI data showing the economy remains in decline.
David Madden, financial analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "Sterling has been in a solid upward trend recently, it came under a bit of pressure this morning in the wake of the dreadful UK retail sales numbers but the move was relatively small when you consider the awful reading."
In company news, the biggest announcement on a quiet Friday for corporate reporting was NatWest Group, formerly known as RBS. Bosses revealed the bank made a pre-tax operating loss of £351 million in 2020, down from a profit of £4.2 billion a year earlier. The bank took a £3.2bn impairment charge – accounting for expected loans that will fail due to the Covid-19 crisis.
But shareholders preferred to focus on the return of a dividend – paying up 3p-per-share or £364 million, with shares closing up 8.85p, or 5.2%, at 180.15p.
Elsewhere, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said it has agreed to sell its education technology arm for $410m (£293.4m) in an effort to strengthen its finances during the pandemic.
The Hobsons' Naviance and Intersect businesses will now be owned by US education technology firm PowerSchool for about $320m. Its college-focused Starfish business from the rest of the Hobsons stable goes to US firm EAB for $90m. Shares closed up 166p, or 21%, at 946p.
Another publisher, Future, revealed a profit upgrade due to high levels of online engagement in the four months to the end of January, although its events division suffered. Shares closed up 20p at 1,922p.
Retail property firm NewRiver has snapped up Sheffield's The Moor development in a £41m move through its joint venture with Bravo. The firm has identified the potential to build up to 1,100 built-to-rent residential units and up to 300 student accommodation units at the site. Shares closed up 1.5p at 87.5p.
And property investment firm Segro said its portfolio grew 10% by the end of 2020 to £13bn. Pre-tax profit was up by 62% to £1.5bn last year, leading to a rise in the dividend to 22.1p a share. Shares closed up 14.6p at 977.4p.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Antofagasta, up 123p at 1,838p; Rolls-Royce, up 5.32p at 98.66p; NatWes,t up 8.85p at 180.15p; IAG, up 8.05p at 165.75p; and Evraz, up 24.6p at 556.6p.
The biggest fallers were Experian, down 91p at 2,489p; Reckitt Benckiser, down 206p at 6,072p; Intertek, down 186p at 5,694p; AstraZeneca, down 228p at 7,226p; and Relx, down 47.5p at 1,760.5p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here