By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- EasyJet PLC shares cruised higher Friday
following a raised profit forecast by the air carrier, helping the
benchmark FTSE 100 come off a 10-month low.
EasyJet shares rose 6.4%, as the budget airline said a pilot
strike at rival carrier Air France should help boost its pretax
profit for the year to Sept. 30 by 5 million pounds ($8.07
million).
Earnings should now come in at GBP575 million to GBP580 million,
the company said. EasyJet had previously expected earnings of
GBP545 million to GBP570 million.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.8% at 6,496.86. The index on Thursday slid
1.7% to its lowest closing level since December 2013. Other
European markets also sold off as investors expressed
dissatisfaction at the European Central Bank's efforts to stave off
low inflation and stagnating growth in the eurozone.
But the FTSE 100 was on track for a weekly decline of 2.3%,
which would mark a second weekly loss in a row.
Tesco PLC shares sat at the bottom of the British benchmark
Friday as they fell 2.7%. Earlier this week, the U.K. Financial
Conduct Authority began investigating the supermarket chain's
recent overstatement of its first-year profit forecast by 250
million pounds ($405 million).
"I made a mistake on that," Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren
Buffett said Thursday on CNBC about his company's investment in
Tesco. "That was a huge mistake I made."
Meanwhile, the pound (GBPUSD) remained under pressure after Bank
of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said the U.K. is "not
ready yet" for an increase in interest rates. The pound bought
$1.6072, compared with around $1.6187 late Thursday.
Broadbent made the comment in an interview with ITV, broadcast
on Thursday. Businesses and households should, however, prepare for
higher rates, he said.
The BOE is poised to begin raising interest rates during the
first quarter of 2015, economists at Goldman Sachs said on Friday.
That time frame would mean the BOE would start hiking rates earlier
than the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is seen as likely to begin its
rate increase in the third quarter of 2015.
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