By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch FTSE 100 on track for weekly
rise
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks ebbed lower Friday, with oil
issues pulled down as crude prices were stuck at multiyear lows,
but Tesco PLC was a standout gainer following a ratings upgrade for
the embattled supermarket chain.
The FTSE 100 shed 0.1% to 6,631.29 as oil and gas shares fell
alongside crude futures. January Brent on London's ICE Futures
exchange fell 9 cents, or 0.1%, to $77.42. Shares of Tullow Oil
fell 2.4%, BP PLC (BP) lost 0.9% and BG Group PLC gave up 1%.
Mining issues were also under pressure, with Fresnillo PLC off
by 2.8%, Randgold Resources Ltd. lower by 2.2% and Anglo American
PLC losing 2.1%.
But Tesco bounced up 1.7% following a late-Thursday ratings
upgrade to overweight from neutral by HSBC, which said, in part, it
believes "the right steps are being taken to position Tesco for the
long term, building on its scale, skills and assets." Tesco in
September first revealed it likely overstated its first-half profit
forecast by 250 million pounds ($391 million) because of an
accounting error. In October, it said the overstated profit was
GBP263 million.
Also higher were shares of Aggreko PLC , up 4.2% to top the FTSE
100 after the temporary-power provider said underlying trading
profit in 2014 will be similar to that in 2013. Third-quarter
results were in line with expectations.
The FTSE 100 was on track to rise 0.9% for the week.
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