Banks and tech lead FTSE bounce after choppy week

Rebound for banks, energy and tech-related names on Friday morning helps UK shares recoup some of their losses at the end of a ‘rollercoaster’ week, though a bounce for Scottish Mortgage trust does little to reverse heavy losses.

A rebound for banks, energy and tech-related names on Friday morning helped UK shares recoup some of their losses at the end of a ‘rollercoaster’ week, with the heavy losses Scottish Mortgage (SMT ) is still nursing hinting at the degree of pain for US tech.

The FTSE 100 was trading up 89 points, or 1.2%, at 7,322, on track for a roughly 0.8% weekly decline.

‘It was another rollercoaster for US stocks yesterday but in the end the major indices closed flattish,’ said Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson, who added that was more a case of markets entering ‘oversold conditions’ rather than signs of a durable rally.

The S&P 500 is down 4.7% since last Friday, with worse losses on the tech-dominated Nasdaq.

‘Asian markets came bouncing back overnight with the Nikkei rebounding by more than 2.5% and positive momentum has carried forward into the European session,’ said Victoria Scholar, an analyst at Interactive Investor.

Ocado (OCDO) rebounded after being one of the biggest fallers yesterday, with the loss-making grocery delivery company’s shares up 3.8% to 803p.

Scottish Mortgage recouped most of Thursday’s decline, with the Baillie Gifford fund’s shares climbing 3.4% to 777p after a firmer day for growth stocks in the US. However, the closed-end fund remains down nearly 7% this week and has lost about half its value over six months.

Oil prices have risen towards the end of the week, with global benchmark Brent crude up more than 1% to close to over $108 per barrel, as concerns about demand due to a slowdown in China were offset by potentially dwindling supply from Russia. BP (BP) shares rose 1.3% to 406p.

Banks also rebounded, led by a 3.3% rise for Standard Chartered (STAN) to 584p.

There were few big fallers among UK blue chips, though educational publisher Pearson (PSON) slipped 1.9% to 741p.

The FTSE 250 also started to rebound also heavy losses earlier in the week. The mid-cap index traded up 256 points, or 1.3%, to 19,737, helped by a 10.4% jump in the shares of private equity group Bridgepoint (BPT) to 282p. Chrysalis (CHRY ), a closed-end fund investing in fast-growing and mostly private companies, rallied 6.6% to 130p

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