FTSE jumps 5.2 pct, ends week on positive ground 17/10

British blue-chip stocks gained 5.2 percent on Friday as oil shares bounced on recovering crude prices, while UK pharmaceuticals forged higher as investors bet on upbeat earnings from their Swiss peers next week.
The FTSE 100 closed up 201.6 points at 4,063.0 points, ending 3.3 percent higher on the week. The index shed more than 20 percent the previous week, its worst week since the 1987 stock market crash. The week's gains follow weeks of brutal losses on world stock markets in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

A rolling credit crisis has knocked about 37 percent off the FTSE 100 so far this year. Stocks bounced higher across Europe, shrugging off weak and skittish trade on Wall Street.

Energy shares led the advance, with BP and Royal Dutch Shell rising 8.6 and 8.4 percent, respectively. Oil rose back to more than $70. (RTR/MDY)

by : Denny Yahya