By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks headed lower on Friday amid
a broader global selloff, ignited by concerns over reports of an
Ebola case in New York City. Investors in London also waited for
third-quarter U.K. economic growth data.
The FTSE 100 index slid 0.5% to 6,388.89, trimming its weekly
gain to 1.2%.
Tesco PLC sank to the bottom of the index, down 3.1%. Shares of
the supermarket chain sank 6.6% on Thursday, after it said its
accounting error was bigger than initially estimated and revealed
Chairman Richard Broadbent stepping down.
Travel shares and airliners were also on the decline, after
reports that a doctor who traveled back to New York from an
Ebola-stricken region of Africa tested positive on Thursday.
Concerns over the outbreak of the deadly virus also took a toll on
U.S. markets, with futures pointing to a weak open on Wall
Street.
In London, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC lost 2.4%, TUI
Travel PLC fell 2.6%, easyJet PLC dropped 0.7%, and International
Consolidated Airlines Group SA gave up 0.8%.
On the data front, the first estimate of third-quarter U.K.
gross domestic product comes out at 9:30 a.m. London time, or 4:30
a.m. Eastern Time. Economists expect economic growth to have slowed
to 0.7% from 0.9% in the second quarter. The pound (GBPUSD) traded
at $1.6029 ahead of the release, unchanged from late Thursday in
New York.
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