London stocks ended Friday in the red, after a raft of corporate earnings and a further fall into deflation for the eurozone in April.
At close, the FTSE 100 lost 1.27% to 6,241.89 and the FTSE 250 dropped 1.55% to finish at 16,801.55.
Lloyds Banking Group was under pressure after reporting a 6% drop in first-quarter underlying profit, although this was better than forecast as a reduction in impairment charges, PPI provisions and lower costs counterbalanced a small decline in income.
Anglo American bucked the trend, boosted by an agreement to sell its niobium and phosphates businesses in Brazil to China Molybdenum for a cash consideration of $1.5bn.
Shares in Restaurant Group were tumbling after the company warned over its annual profits, highlighting a further deterioration in trading conditions and announcing the departure of its chief financial officer.
Meanwhile, consumer prices in the eurozone fell more than expected in April, according to data released by Eurostat. Prices declined 0.2% on the year, having been steady at a 0.1% drop in March. This was a bigger fall than the 0.1% forecast by economists, with energy prices proving to be the biggest drag as they slid 8.6% on the year.
Core inflation rose 0.8%, missing expectations for a 1% increase. Underlying inflation continues to run away from the ECB’s baseline rate of 2%.
Eurozone economic growth data for the first quarter from Eurostat was more positive. Seasonally-adjusted gross domestic product rose 0.6% compared with the previous quarter when it grew 0.3%. This was stronger than the 0.4% growth pencilled in by economists.
Separately, Eurostat said the eurozone unemployment rate nudged down to 10.2% in March from 10.4% in February and 11.2% in the same month last year. This marked the lowest rate in the bloc since August 2011.
In the UK, consumer confidence declined in April, according to a GfK survey. The sentiment index fell to -3 this month from 0 in March, worse than analysts’ estimates of -1.
The number of Britain’s mortgage approvals came to 71,357 last month, down from 73,195 in February, the Bank of England said. Analysts had pencilled in 74,400 approvals.
University of Michigan’s US consumer confidence for April also disappointed, falling to 89.0 from a previous reading of 89.7 and an expected 90.0.
Oil prices began to slip as markets closed for the UK Bank Holiday weekend, with Brent crude losing 0.61% to $47.85.