At the close: Bank holiday starts early for the London markets on flat day in the City
Friday's are always slightly slower in the Square Mile. None more so than on a sunny afternoon on a bank holiday eve.
The markets, characteristically, were static. The FTSE 100 closed down 0.1 per cent at 6,258.06, but volumes plummeted, with the number of shares swapping hands around half its usual level.
The slow day ended a bumper week for the index, which closes up 102 points on last Friday.
It was also a quiet one on the continent, with the German Dax off 0.2 per cent at 10,254.79 and the Cac 40 in Paris falling by 0.3 per cent to 4,499.69.
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Banking stocks had a bit of life to them as rumours swirled that Lloyds Banking Group was lining up an £8bn bid for Bank of America's credit card arm MBNA. Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were both up by just over one per cent. It wasn't enough to create much movement at Lloyds itself, however, down 0.5 per cent at 72.44p a pop.
The pound continued its mini slide against the dollar, after a storming start to the week. It dropped 0.3 per cent today to stand at $1.4628 – still eight cents higher than the depths of late February.
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Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG and one of the few people still at his desk when markets closed said: "We have seen a predictably nervy end to the week today, as the prospect of a long weekend for both US and UK coupled with a speech from Janet Yellen ensured traders reduced exposure to potential volatility.
Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC markets added: "The long holiday weekend in the UK and the US has made for lacklustre trading on Friday. UK markets are closed this Monday for the May bank holiday whilst the US is off for Memorial Day. If not physically out of the office, traders were mentally checked out."