London shares perked up towards the end of the day and closed mostly higher on Friday, following an extended Wall Street rally after a week of heavy tech sell-offs.
The FTSE 100 finished up 0.6%, the FTSE 250 fell 0.1%, and the AIM All-Share edged 0.1% higher.
On the FTSE 100, Anglo American gained 0.4% after confirming it was moving to finalise the sale of its nickel business and had restarted efforts to dispose of its remaining steelmaking coal operation.
The miner had previously faced a setback when Peabody Energy abruptly ended its bid for Anglo’s Australian coal assets. Anglo American said it has re-initiated a formal sale process and is working to secure the final regulatory approval from the European Commission, part of a deal first announced in February.
Carnival, on the FTSE 250, surged 17% after reporting a pretax profit of $2.77 billion for the year ended 30 November, up 45% from $1.92 billion a year earlier. Revenue climbed 6.4% to a record $26.62 billion, with passenger ticket revenue rising 5.8% to $17.42 billion. The company reinstated dividends, declaring a quarterly payout of 15 US cents, and expects adjusted net income in 2026 to grow by 12%.
In smaller companies, Seraphim Space added 8.8%, while on AIM, Revel Collective slumped 74%. The bar and pub operator said several parties were in talks to acquire its businesses but warned any deal was unlikely to return value to shareholders.
Caledonia Mining rose 11% after welcoming revisions to Zimbabwean gold mining rules. A planned royalty increase to 10% now only applies if the gold price exceeds $5,000 per ounce, and a proposed tax change on capital expenditure has been withdrawn. The miner said its financial outlook remains unchanged while gold stays below $5,000.
At the close in London, US markets were higher. The Dow Jones rose 0.6%, the S&P 500 added 0.7%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.8%.