11 June 2017
The British pound fell to a seven-week low on Friday after a shock election result cast doubt on Britain's talks to leave the European Union.The benchmark FTSE 100 index of large British multinationals fed off sterling's decline, as earnings from abroad will be worth more from a weaker currency and gained 1 percent.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would form a government backed by a small Northern Irish party after her Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority in a vote on Thursday just days before the EU departure talks begin.

MSCI's all-country stock world stock index slid 0.04 percent on Friday as much of Wall Street retreated.

Saudi Arabia's index fell back 1.2 percent on Thursday after the Brent oil price tumbled 4 percent overnight. Among major losers, travel firm Al Tayyar sank 3.9 percent.

Dubai's index fell 0.2 percent as Emaar Properties , which had surged 8.6 percent on Wednesday after saying it planned an initial public offering of up to 30 percent of its United Arab Emirates real estate development business, slipped back 0.3 percent.

Oil prices rose on Friday after a pipeline stoppage in Nigeria, but crude ended the week down nearly 4 percent on persistent worries about global oversupply.Brent crude oil settled 29 cents higher at $48.15 a barrel, and U.S. crude rose 19 cents to settle at $45.83.

Gold prices fell about 1 percent on Friday as the dollar strengthened.

In the latest news, French voters head to the polls on Sunday for the first of two rounds of a parliamentary election expected to give new President Emmanuel Macron a solid majority as the latest opinion polls showed.

Airbus could move production of new aircraft models out of Britain if the European plane-maker's "non-negotiable" demands over the free movement of people and trade tariffs are not delivered in upcoming Brexit talks, the Sunday Times reported.

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