Sterling jumped to a two-year high as currency traders held out hope for a deal with the EU as time ticked away for an agreement to be struck.
Despite the strong pound, the London markets closed higher as they saw a boost by strong energy stocks.
The pound increased by 0.25% versus the US dollar at 1.348 and was up 0.27% against the euro at 1.110.
Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 closed 59.96 points higher at 6,550.23 at the end of trading on Friday.
Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said: “The FTSE was the day’s biggest winner.
“The UK index struck a nine-month peak of 6,650 following reports that OPEC – and, importantly, Russia and Saudi Arabia – have struck an oil output agreement.
“Though Brent Crude only added 1.5%, BP surged 3.9%, with Shell not far behind at 3.4%, providing the fuel for the FTSE’s recent peak.
“It also allowed the UK index to climb despite the pound’s own gains.”
Elsewhere in Europe, the other major indices were far more muted than the FTSE with cautious sentiment among traders dragging the Dax lower again.
The German Dax was 0.21% lower while the French Cac moved 0.62% higher.
Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones and S&P made gains despite a mixed US jobs report.
The S&P hit yet another intra-day record high amid speculation that the US economy may still need further financial stimulus.
In company news, Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF) closed in the green despite saying that the pandemic hit sales to the tune of £430 million – higher than previously expected.
It told investors it has recovered some of the costs, with overheads falling 25% during the autumn lockdowns and early signs that reopened stores are seeing strong sales. Shares finished 57p higher at 2,360p.
Energy supplier SSE made gains after it lifted its profit targets on the back of sealing a deal to sell its 10% stake in the world’s biggest wind farm project.
It closed 25.5p higher at 1,386.5p after it confirmed the £202.5 million sale of its share of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm off the East Yorkshire coast to Italian energy giant Eni.
Cineworld sank on Friday after investors digested Warner Bros’s decision to release all of its 2021 releases – including blockbusters such as Dune, Matrix 4 and The Suicide Squad – on its HBO Max streaming service at the same time as in cinemas.
Shares in the chain closed 10.94p lower at 62.02p as Cineworld responded, saying cinemas are “the best place to watch a movie”.
Housebuilder Berkeley closed 89p lower at 4,764p after it revealed a 17% slump in pre-tax profits for the past half-year.
The price of oil was higher after OPEC confirmed that its output agreement will continue its fairly tough production cuts in place. The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil increased by 1.53% to $49.17.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here