By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks rose Friday, poised for
their third straight week of gains, with EasyJet PLC cruising among
the session's best performers as it filled more of its airline
seats.
The FTSE 100 picked up 0.5% to 6,684.63, and headed for a 1%
weekly rise.
The FTSE, along with other major European equity indexes, held
to higher ground after the U.S. Labor Department said the economy
created 192,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate was
unchanged at 6.7%, as more than a half-million people joined the
labor force in search of work. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch
expected an increase of 200,000 nonfarm jobs, and a dip in the
unemployment rate to 6.6%. Employment gains for February and
January were revised higher.
Contributing to FTSE 100's rise were shares of EasyJet PLC , up
2.4% after the company said the number of passengers it carried in
March rose 4.8% to 5.1 million from the same month a year ago. Load
factor, or the percentage of seats filled with passengers, rose to
91.5% from 90.5% a year earlier.
EasyJet's March traffic suggests momentum, said Credit Suisse
analyst Neil Glynn in a note Friday. With volumes for carrier
Ryanair Holdings PLC down due to the timing of the Easter holiday,
"we consider this a strong performance on a tough comparative,"
Glynn wrote.
Also advancing in London, shares of British Airways parent
International Consolidated Airlines Group were up 2.3%.
Miners, banks and insurers were also higher, including a 2.9%
rise for RSA Insurance Group
But losing ground were shares of Tesco PLC , down 1.1%,
following a Financial Times report that the grocer's finance
director, Laurie McIlwee, will resign as early as next week as the
company faces another steep drop in profit.
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