By Nick Kostov
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The FTSE 100 was up on Friday, with more well-received data out of China boosting miners for a second day running.
The benchmark /zigman2/quotes/210598409/delayed UK:UKX -0.0088% gained 0.8 % to close at 6,583.39, after snapping a four-day losing streak on Thursday. The gain wasn’t enough to send it higher on the week, and it closed with a weekly loss of 1%.
Market optimism in Friday was fueled by data from China that showed industrial production in July was up 9.7% from a year earlier, its fastest rate of growth since February. In addition, consumer prices in China rose at a slower-than-expected rate in July, up 2.7%.
“There’s hope that the trough has bottomed out and going into the third quarter, economic activity in China will pick up,” said Timo del Carpio, a European economist at RBC Capital Markets.
Miners narrowed their losses on the year, with the top eight performers on Friday all from the sector.
Fresnillo PLC /zigman2/quotes/201300065/delayed UK:FRES -1.23% /zigman2/quotes/203613035/composite FNLPF -1.41% led the pack, up 8.2%. Randgold Resources Ltd. added 6.8%, Anglo American PLC /zigman2/quotes/201381512/delayed UK:AAL -3.93% /zigman2/quotes/204130805/composite AAUKF -4.14% rose 6.1%, Vedanta Resources PLC was up 5.4% and BHP Billiton PLC /zigman2/quotes/201448516/delayed AU:BHP -2.91% rose 3.4%. Metals prices were higher across the board.
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Shares of Rio Tinto PLC /zigman2/quotes/208934945/delayed UK:RIO -1.67% /zigman2/quotes/200083756/delayed AU:RIO -2.30% /zigman2/quotes/204234152/composite RTNTF -6.12% , the world’s second-largest iron-ore producer, added 5%.
Other big companies were also on the move. British supermarket giant Tesco PLC /zigman2/quotes/203761082/delayed UK:TSCO -0.27% /zigman2/quotes/208796454/composite TSCDF +2.11% was up 1.6% after it revealed it is in talks with China Resources Enterprise Ltd. /zigman2/quotes/201959750/delayed HK:291 +4.56% to form a joint venture in China, where foreign retailers have struggled to expand market share.
Some big U.K. retailers were bucking the positive trend. Shares of Marks & Spencer Group PLC /zigman2/quotes/206225481/delayed UK:MKS +1.99% dropped 2%, and Next PLC /zigman2/quotes/200704121/delayed UK:NXT +2.12% was down 1.3%. Luxury-clothes retailer Burberry Group PLC /zigman2/quotes/205386705/delayed UK:BRBY -0.55% lost 1%.
The biggest loser was insurance firm Standard Life PLC , down 3.3%. The insurance firm had already dropped 2.6% Thursday after reporting a 6.6% drop in first-half pretax profit.
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