24.04.202615:51:01UTC+00FTSE 100 Falls for 5th Session

The FTSE 100 fell more than 0.5% on Friday, its fifth consecutive decline, to a more than two-week low and a weekly loss of about 2.5%. Packaging group Mondi dropped over 10% after cautioning that rising energy, raw material and logistics costs linked to the Middle East conflict are weighing on its outlook. Pharmaceutical stocks also weakened, with AstraZeneca down 3.7% and GSK off 2.7% ahead of upcoming earnings releases. Defence names were under pressure, including BAE Systems (-3%), Babcock (-4.3%) and Rolls-Royce (-2.5%). Major banks—HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and NatWest—slipped around 0.8% to 1.1% in the run-up to next week’s results. In contrast, Unilever gained 1.1% and British American Tobacco rose 2.6%, while oil majors Shell (0.4%) and BP (0.2%) posted modest advances. On the data front, UK retail sales increased 0.7% in March, beating forecasts, with a 0.2% rise when excluding fuel.