Stocks in London made a poor end to a volatile week, with the FTSE 100 being bogged down by banks, and the oil and gas sector as Brent started to descend from earlier highs despite continued Ukraine tension.
On top of shellfire in eastern Ukraine ringing out between government forces and rebel-held territory, and lingering optimism was stifled by the announcement from Ukraine rebel leaders that they would start evacuation citizens to Russia.
‘From today, a mass centralised departure of the population to the Russian Federation has been organised. Women, children and the elderly are subject to be evacuated first,’ said Denis Pushilin, head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic.
In a video message on the Telegram messaging service, he accused Kyiv of planning an imminent attack on the pro-Moscow breakaway territories.
Russia on Friday said it was withdrawing more tanks and other armoured vehicles from areas near Ukraine's border after running war games that had raised concerns in the West.
The West has accused Moscow of massing tens of thousands of troops both on Crimea and near Ukraine's borders and warned of an imminent Russian attack. In response to the first announcements of the pullbacks however, Washington said there was no meaningful reduction in troop numbers and said Russia was actually increasing forces around the border.
The FTSE 100 index closed down 23.75 points, or 0.3%, at 7,513.62 on Friday - closing the week down 1.9%. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index closed down 194.99 points, or 0.9%, at 21,362.60, adding to the week's 3.1% slide. The AIM All-Share index ended down 12,21 points, or 1.1%, at 1,060.02, finishing the week down 2.3%.
The Cboe UK 100 index closed down 0.2% at 746.20. The Cboe 250 ended down 0.9% at 19,080.47, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.4% at 15,516.27.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.3%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt closed down 1.5%.
NatWest lost 2.4% despite returning to profit in 2021.
The state-backed bank swung to a pretax profit of £4.03 billion, slightly above the £4.02 billion expected by analysts, from a loss of £481 million the year before, benefiting from an impairment release of £1.28 billion versus an expense of £3.13 billion. The 2021 profit figure neared 2019's result of £4.23 billion.
Natwest laid out plans for a £750 million share buyback in the first half of 2022 and said it will consider further repurchases as part of its capital distribution approach. This was alongside a final dividend of 7.5 pence, more than double 3.0p the year before.
Barclays gave back 0.8% and Lloyds lost 0.1%. Bucking the trend was Asia-focused Standard Chartered - which finished atop the FTSE 100, adding 3.7%. Friday's gain added to Thursday's 1.7% rise.
The bank on Thursday had reported pretax profit for 2021 of $3.35 billion, more than doubled from $1.61 billion a year prior.
Brent oil was trading at $92.85 a barrel, rising from $92.65 late Thursday. BP shed 1.6%,
while peer Shell gave back 0.6%.
Back in London, Reckitt Benckiser, added 2.0% to extend Thursday's 5.9% rally. The hygiene and household goods firm on Thursday posted a full-year loss but beat expectations on the revenue front, with the firm looking towards a margin improvement in the year ahead despite inflationary pressures.
In the US, the Dow Jones was down 0.6%, the S&P 500 down 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.2%. Financial markets will be closed in the US on Monday as the country celebrates Presidents Day.
With ‘strong inflation’ running far above the US central bank's target, it will be ‘appropriate’ to raise the benchmark borrowing rate in March, New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said Friday.
Raising rates off zero and ‘steadily moving... back to more normal levels’ while also reducing the Fed's massive bond holdings will help bring inflation back down to around three percent by the end of the year, Williams said in a speech delivered virtually to New Jersey City University.
He added that he is confident the economy will continue to recover even as the Fed removes the stimulus the central bank provided during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was another clear signal about the Fed's intentions in the face of a wave of prices increases that has spread through the economy, and comes from the official who serves as vice chair of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
Gold was quoted at $1,893.40 an ounce on Friday, lower than $1,895.50 on Thursday. Fellow safe haven the Japanese yen also retreated. Against the yen, the dollar rose to JPY115.11 from JPY115.02.
Sterling was quoted at $1.3584 Friday evening, soft against $1.3620 at the London equities close on Thursday. The euro traded at $1.1334 on Friday, dipping from $1.1370 late Thursday.
In the economics calendar next week, Monday will have a slew of PMI data, with Japan reporting early in the morning, followed by Germany, eurozone, and the UK. On Tuesday, there is US housing price index with PMI data, too.
On Thursday, there is local producer prices as well a initial jobless claims in the US. Early Friday morning there is Japan consumer prices and German GDP and personal consumption expenditures in the US.
In the local corporate on Monday, ahead of a busy earnings week, there is half-year results from Wilmington, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Finsbury Food and Sylvania Platinum, while Bank of Cyprus will issue full-year results.
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