(MENAFN- AFP) Britain's stock market edged up Friday in subdued deals ahead of a general election next week, with the majority of Europe shut for the May Day holiday long weekend.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 was up 0.36 percent at 6,985.95 points at the close.
"With Europe mostly out of action for May Day, it was a quiet day in London, but at least the traditionally weak period for equities has started off on the right foot," said analyst Chris Beauchamp at trading firm IG.
"Miners continue to dominate the top end of the FTSE 100 on revived hopes that the Chinese government will be hustled into fresh stimulus measures by the general lack of strength in economic data," he said.
The mining companies showing the biggest gains were Anglo American, which was up 5.43 percent at 1,165 pence, Rio Tinto (+3.88 percent at 2,997 pence) and BHP Billiton (+2.98 percent at 1,607.5 pence).
Shares in state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group jumped 7.09 percent to 82.87 pence after it announced a strong operational performance even though net profits sank by a fifth in the first quarter.
The results were better than had been expected.
On the downside, Prudential shares sagged 1.04 percent, closing at 1,612 pence after the group appointed Mike Wells as new chief executive to replace Tidjane Thiam.
On Thursday, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index gained 0.19 percent to 11,454.38 points while the Paris CAC 40 rose 0.14 percent at 5,046.49 points.
Both key eurozone markets will reopen on Monday, when London will have a holiday closure.
Jasper Lawler, an analyst at CMC Markets, said the rise in the euro would be the trend to watch.
"The strength of the euro and corresponding jump in bund yields has been an issue for export-orientated German stocks," he said.
"Germany's benchmark stock index, the DAX, finishing April almost exactly where it started March shows a significant shift in sentiment.
"The slide in prices suggest it may not be until the second half of the year that we see new record stock market highs in Europe, if at all," he added.
- Gains in US despite weak growth -
Across the Atlantic, Wall Street also ticked higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.56 percent, the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.53 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.61 percent.
Expedia surged 7.5 percent on first-quarter net income of $44.1 million, compared with a loss of $14.3 million last year. Sales rose 14 percent.
Biotech firm Gilead Sciences gained 3.2 percent after reporting that first-quarter net income nearly doubled to $4.3 billion.
But online networking site LinkedIn sank 20.3 percent on a second-quarter revenue forecast of $670-$675 million, well below the $718 million projected by analysts.
US stocks have fallen the last two days following a weak first-quarter US economic growth report.
In foreign exchange activity, the European single currency jumped to a two-month peak at $1.1285 on Friday.
Later on Friday, the euro stood at $1.1246, up from $1.1224 in New York late on Thursday.
The single currency has risen after figures showed eurozone inflation at zero in April, the first time it has been out of negative territory in four months, while Spain's economy grew in January-March at its fastest pace since 2007.
In Asia on Friday, most markets were also shut for public holidays. Tokyo stocks reversed early losses to end slightly higher Friday thanks to a weaker yen.
Sydney rose on news that manufacturing activity in China -- a crucial market for many Australian firms -- recorded another modest expansion in April.
China's official purchasing managers index came in at 50.1 last month, the same as in March when it expanded for the first time this year. Anything above 50 points to growth, while anything below indicates a contraction.
While positive, the figures suggest the world's second largest economy is still struggling with a sharp slowdown.
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