London---Britain's stock market edged ahead Friday in subdued deals with the majority of Europe shut for the May Day holiday long weekend.
In afternoon trade, London's benchmark FTSE 100 added 0.18 percent to 6,972.94 points.
On Thursday, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index gained 0.19 percent to 11,454.38 points while the Paris CAC 40 rose 0.14 percent at 5,046.49 points.
Both key eurozone markets will reopen on Monday, when London will have a holiday closure.
"May Day bank holidays in mainland Europe leave the FTSE feeling lonely," said analyst Alastair McCaig at trading firm IG.
European stocks had posted gains Thursday, rebounding from the previous day's losses following news of surprisingly weak first-quarter US economic growth data.
"Trading volumes may be lower today as a result of the bank holiday in much of Europe," added Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.
Across the Atlantic, Wall Street opened on a positive note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.66 percent, the broad-based S&P 500 rosed 0.59 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.62 percent.
In foreign exchange activity, the European single currency jumped to a two-month peak at $1.1285 on Friday.
In company news, Britain's state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group said net profits sank by a fifth to 913 million ($1.40 billion, 1.25 billion euros) in the first quarter, after taking a charge against the disposal of its TSB division.
However, Lloyds shares rallied 7.48 percent to 83.17 pence as it also revealed that pretax profit before exceptional items rose 21 percent to £2.2 billion in the first quarter.
On the downside, Prudential shares sagged 1.07 percent to 1,611.50 pence after the group appointed Mike Wells as new chief executive to replace Tidjane Thiam.
Later on Friday, the euro stood at $1.1246, up from $1.1224 in New York late on Thursday.
AFP
