Monday saw UK markets get off to a good start, only to fall back later in the trading day. Due to the prospects of action in Iraq, the price of oil shot up, as expected. Conversely, drug and telecommunication stocks headed downwards. By close of play the FTSE 100 was down by 0.5% and the FTSE TechMARK down by 1%.
Tuesday's trading seemed to mirror Monday with telecommunication stocks heading south and oil stocks north. Despite the FTSE 100 seeing lower points throughout the day, it managed to close only marginally worse for the day. Not such good news for the FTSE TechMARK after bad news from telecommunication stocks, it closed down over 2% for the day. Bad news also from the manufacturing sector, the Office for National Statistics reported that manufacturing output had fallen by a greater level than expected and was now down 6.1% for the year.
Wednesday saw a comeback from telecommunication stocks and the FTSE 100 rose. However, worse than expected figures from the US on retail sales figures pushed the index back down. Despite the fall back the blue chip index managed a gain for the day of almost 0.5%. Again, the TechMARK did not fare as well, closing marginally lower for the day.
Thursday saw pharmaceutical stocks slide, on the back of a patent ruling against GlaxoSmithKline. Unemployment news from the US was good but not as good as expected. A reversal of fortune from earlier in the week was seen for oil stocks and telecommunications - oil stocks fell and telecommunications rose. By close of play the FTSE 100 and FTSE TechMARK had also changed places, with the blue chip index losing 0.2% and the TechMARK gaining 0.3%.
Friday saw the FTSE 100 close up just over 0.5% and the TechMARK closed up by almost 1%. This meant that the FTSE 100 made a slight gain overall for the week but the TechMARK lost around 2% overall. The push into plus figures came fairly late in the day when the US released two pieces of positive data. Firstly, the Consumer Sentiment Survey for March showed increased confidence on a higher level than expected. Secondly, a big increase in industrial production was seen, leading everyone to comment about the US economic recovery.