Antofagasta plc (ANTO), Barclays PLC (BARC) and FTSE Shares That Soared and Plunged This Week

LONDON — The FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) had an almost clean sweep of positive sessions this week, before falling back a little on Friday to close at 6,384 points. But it still gained a healthy 135 points over the week, touching a high point of 6,424 on Thursday. And with the top U.K. index having reached a five-year high of 6,534 points on March 12, London is still in a general bullish mood.

Here are four of the biggest-moving FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) stocks this week.

Marks & Spencer
High Street department-store chain Marks & Spencer has been going through a touch patch, but an Easter shopping week that was billed as its best ever helped push the stock up 23 pence (6.1%) to reach 400 pence. Group sales for the fourth quarter gained 3.1% year on year, with U.K. sales managing a 2.6% rise. We were also told that “despite the macro-economic issues in some of the legacy markets, our performance in Europe improved in the quarter.”

Antofagasta plc (LON:ANTO)
The FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX)’s big mining stocks have had a hard few weeks as fears of a slowdown in Chinese demand have been weighing heavily. But positive news from China of lower-than-expected inflation gave them a boost this week, with Antofagasta plc (LON:ANTO) one of the biggest winners. The copper miner saw its price rise 52 pence (5.4%) to 1,013 pence, but it’s still down more than 25% since early January.

The article FTSE Shares That Soared and Plunged This Week originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Alan Oscroft.

Alan Oscroft has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Antofagasta.

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