-- British stocks extended their losses to a fifth day, with the FTSE 100 down 0.75% on Friday's close, amid fresh tariff threats and continued geopolitical uncertainty arising from the Middle East conflict.
US President Donald Trump told The Telegraph that he is looking at "putting a big tariff on the UK" if British Prime Minister Keir Starmer does not drop the digital service tax, which is aimed at Apple, Meta and other major technology companies.
On the economic front, the UK's retail sales volumes rose 0.7% on a monthly basis in March, following a revised 0.6% decline in February, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Annually, retail sales volumes increased 1.7%, against the revised 1.8% gain earlier.
In corporate news, Bernstein lowered its price target for J Sainsbury (SBRY.L), d/b/a Sainsbury's, to 3.40 pounds sterling from 3.50 pounds, with the stock rated market-perform, following the British grocery retailer's broadly in-line fiscal 2026 results. The stock closed the trading session 1.29% in the green.
"The challenge for Sainsbury's is that 6 years into the CEO's tenure, margins have gone backwards over the last few years (c. >-30bps) and could soften further into next year. This is despite a well-defined and well executed strategy to put Food First, playing out in market share gains, grocery volume growth, improved pricing, and improved FCF," the research firm said. "However, this successful commercial turnaround is continuously hampered by Argos, cost pressure, macro weakness & competitive pressures, and does not seem to be able to feed into higher margins or a greater share of the profit pool."
Meanwhile, aerospace and defense companies Babcock International Group (BAB.L) and BAE Systems (BA.L) were among the blue-chip index's top fallers, losing 4.60% and 2.86%, respectively, at closing.