The British stock market ended a difficult week with a modest gain, but the FTSE 100 index recouped only a fraction of Wednesday's substantial loss.
As on Thursday, Footsie made a valiant attempt at a rally but failed to sustain the impetus during the afternoon. Wall Street no doubt played its part, opening strongly but seeing its early rise fizzle out. The international background was calmer, with stock markets in Korea and Hong Kong both rebounding, although the problems of the Japanese economy were further illustrated by a rise in unemployment.
Some economically-friendly data in the US allowed Treasury bonds to move higher and the rally filtered through into the gilts market. Footsie was modestly firmer for much of the morning with little news to excite investors. British trade figures showed a £1.5 billion sterling deficit with the rest of the world in March and a £715 million shortfall with non-European Union countries in April. The figures were slightly better than expectations but analysts still expect the deficit to deteriorate this year.
The rally gathered pace to leave Footsie 52.8 higher at 5,915.1 at lunchtime, the high for the day. But the afternoon retreat saw the index end with only a 8.4 point rise at 5,870.7. Over the week, largely because of Wednesday's 100-point drop, the index was 84.9 points lower.
The FTSE 250 and SmallCap indices edged higher; the former gained 2.9 to 5,901.4, while the SmallCap rose 3.5 to 2,773.1.
