Market overview: FTSE closes up 14 at 6,820

1630: Close The biggest London-listed stocks ended the week on an upbeat note after data-heavy session around for the UK, the Eurozone and the US. Data out in the UK showed that while British consumer confidence rose this month, rises are starting to flatten out and people are uncertain about their prospects. In other news, house prices inched just 0.1% higher in August, according to a monthly national housing survey. Eurozone consumer prices slowed to a 0.3% year-on-year rate of change in August, while US household purchases dropped 0.1% following a 0.4% increase in June. Analysts had predicted a 0.2% rise. The FTSE 100 closed 13.95 points at 6,819.75.

1630: Close The biggest London-listed stocks ended the week on an upbeat note after data-heavy session around for the UK, the Eurozone and the US. Data out in the UK showed that while British consumer confidence rose this month, rises are starting to flatten out and people are uncertain about their prospects. In other news, house prices inched just 0.1% higher in August, according to a monthly national housing survey. Eurozone consumer prices slowed to a 0.3% year-on-year rate of change in August, while US household purchases dropped 0.1% following a 0.4% increase in June. Analysts had predicted a 0.2% rise. The FTSE 100 closed 13.95 points at 6,819.75.

1455: The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment gauge rose to 82.5 points at the end of March, versus the previous reading of 79.2 (consensus: 80).

1445: The Chicago NAPM's regional manufacturing sector survey shot higher in August, rising to the 64.3 mark versus an initial estimate of 56.2 (consensus: 56.5).

1217: Astrazeneca and a smattering of financials are still in the lead on the Footsie, while Exova and Afren are now at the bottom of the pile over on the FTSE 250 following their latest interims.

1017: "We now expect the ECB to launch a broad-based asset purchase programme - QE - by the end of the year. Importantly, we think this could be clearly telegraphed to markets as soon as next week's Governing Council meeting," Credit Suisse analysts N.Hill and T.Maharaj wrote to clients on Friday morning before the above data was released.

1000: The rate of consumer price inflation in the euro area slowed to a 0.3% year-on-year pace in August, according to preliminary data from Eurostat. At the so-called 'core' level, which strips out the most volatile items, such as energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, the rate of inflation edged slightly higher, to a 0.9% year-on-year clip (consensus: 0.8%), versus 0.8% in the month before.

0845: Shares have begun the session moving higher ahead of this morning's release of Eurozone consumer price inflation. Much commented as well, house prices in the UK shot ahead by 0.8% over the month in August versus forecasts for a flat reading, according to Halifax. As a group insurers are doing best in the early going on the Footsie, while Tesco is cratering after having delivered a profit warning as many investors had been coming to fear. Shares of Afren and Exova Group are at the bottom of the pile now on the FTSE 250. FTSE 100 up 18.88 to 6,824.68.