Overall, markets have recovered from the slump on Thursday in the wake of comments from European Central Bank president Mario Draghi suggesting interest rates may not be cut much further.
The losses wiped out some of the hefty gains of Wednesday after the Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, said an expected recovery would probably be moderate, suggesting interest rates would remain steady for months to come.
The FCA is "suggesting" lenders might want to use the so-called forward sterling rate published on the Bank of England's website every day, which on Wednesday this week was suggesting interest rates may rise by 3.19% over the next five years (a few days earlier the figure quoted was 3.29%).
Generally strong economic news, comments from the Federal Reserve suggesting interest rates were unlikely to rise in the near future and positive corporate outlooks helped keep the Dow index of 30 actively traded industrial stocks in the positive range for the third consecutive week.
The other issue of note is that with strong GDP growth forecasts for 2011 and 2012 - the inference is that the Bank of England will be encouraged to maintain a very loose monetary policy for longer than recently expected, suggesting interest rates at current levels could be maintained for longer.
The index is up 19.18 points at 6561.62, shrugging off the growing tensions between Russia and the west over Ukraine, with a growing list of sanctions, as well as comments from new US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday suggesting interest rate rises could come within six months.
