BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks fell slightly on Friday as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of the monthly U.S. jobs numbers due tonight, expected to show U.S. jobs creation slowed in July from the previous month amid a resurgence in Covid-19 cases.
The benchmark FTSE 100 dropped 25 points, or 0.42 percent, to 6,001 after declining 1.3 percent on Thursday.
Commodity-related stocks were moving lower despite strong export data from China.
Miner Anglo American fell over 1 percent and Glencore lost 2.7 percent as Sino-U.S. tensions escalated following a U.S. ban on transactions with China's tech firms.
Oil & gas company BP Plc declined 2.6 percent and Royal Dutch Shell gave up 1.7 percent as oil dipped to around $45 a barrel on worries that a demand recovery would slow due to a resurgence of coronavirus cases.
Rolls-Royce Holdings tumbled 3 percent. ValueAct, a California-based activist investor, has sold its full stake in the company, the Financial Times reported.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals soared 10 percent. The manufacturer of non-branded generic drugs reported a 21 percent rise in first-half pretax profit.
Property website Rightmove surged 8.5 percent. After reporting a 43 percent fall in first-half pretax profit, the company said it was helped by a post-lockdown surge of pent-up demand and a temporary lifting of the stamp duty threshold.
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