Investors’ hopes of future interest rate cuts were buoyed on Friday by weak UK economic data, pushing the FTSE 100 upwards.It came after a business survey showed activity across the UK’s private sector contracted in the first weeks of November, amid a slump in optimism in the period following the Budget.But the news had a positive effect on UK stocks, which rose on hopes of faster cuts to the base interest rate by the Bank of England.
At the end of the day in Europe Frankfurt’s Dax index rose 0.83%, while the Cac 40 in Paris gained 0.58%. On currency markets the pound was trading 0.54% lower against the dollar at 1.2516 and had risen 0.14% against the euro at 1.2037. Media Concierge, which runs a raft of newspapers in Ireland as well as direct mail and advertising operations, put forward a potential offer of 21p per share for National World on October 31.