Travel&leisure stocks and financials lead gains

Travel stocks led the way higher at the end of the week as the Footsie advanced towards its largest weekly gain since December 2011, with stock in TUI at the top of the leaderboard but with shares in InterContinental Hotels Group and Carnival close behind as they recovered from falls after the Istanbul airport attacks that killed 43 people.

Speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies group was close behind after analysts at Berenberg reiterated their 'buy' recommendation on the company, albeit while in the process marking down their target price from 3,865p to 3,250p.

"We see every reason for a return towards 10-year average historical levels of 17.2x, given superior EPS growth and potential from battery technology," the broker said.

Select financials and life insurers such as Standard Chartered, St.James´s Place and Aviva all heading higher.

RBS was one notable exception a day after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on the stock to ‘equal weight’ from ‘"overweight’ and reduced its earnings forecast by a third for 2017, and by a quarter for 2018.

WPP jumped after the advertising giant said it has agreed to invest in Woven Digital, a US media company aimed at millennials.

Antofagasta was at the bottom of the pile. In the previous session, Credit Suisse expressed a negative one to two year view on the price of copper and reiterated its 'underperform' stance on the miners´ shares.

The broker pointed out how management had prioritised preserving cash flow and the balance sheet and had pushed projects out, despite which the former remained weak in the near-term and with a view to 2016 and 2017 M&A risk remained.