UK stocks : FTSE 100 flat
Gains in heavyweight healthcare stocks were unable to take Britain's blue chip share index back to five-year highs on Friday as weak commodity stocks capped the market's rise.
The index managed a weekly gain but did not test five-year highs set earlier in the week, as a late locking in of profits ahead of the weekend pared gains made on the back of encouraging data out of the United States.
They included a stronger Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey and a New York Fed Business conditions Index that smashed expectations.
"Confidence figures are higher generally, so even if lagging economic data is hardly stacking up in a positive light, there does seem to be a broadly speaking positive forward-looking outlook globally," said Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG Index.
"However, at the January 2008 highs, traders are looking to square their books up a little bit ahead of the weekend," McCaig said.
At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 0.90 points, at 6,328.26, with strength in the healthcare sector counteracted by weakness in miners and energy stocks.
Drug maker Reckitt Benckiser, manufacturer of Strepsils throat lozenges, added the most points to the index, gaining 1.5 percent after HSBC raised its target price on the stock.
That took its gains to the week to 5.7 percent after the company beat earnings forecasts on Wednesday, prompting a wave of broker upgrades.
Peer GlaxoSmithKline also gained, rising 0.4 percent and adding 1.3 points to the index after it gained priority status for its drug for HIV/AIDS.
However, miners Randgold
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