London's FTSE 100 inched up by 0.3% on Friday, thanks to unexpectedly robust U.S. jobs data that soothed recession jitters. The VIX index, a barometer of investor uncertainty, has settled back near its starting point for the week after a wild ride. It spiked 181% during Monday’s market turmoil, peaking at 65, but closed last night at 23, as U.S. recession fears eased with the largest drop in weekly initial jobless claims in nearly a year. 

Industrial metal miners were the stars, rising on the back of a copper price rebound. Real estate investment trusts and the broader real estate sector also progressed, as well as energy and precious metal miners to a lesser extent. On the flip side, defensive stocks such as personal care, pharmaceuticals, and grocery stocks declined.

Hargreaves Lansdown shares got a 2.2% boost after agreeing to a £5.44 billion takeover by a private equity consortium led by CVC. It also reported its annual results, showing a pretax profit of £396.3 million, down 2% from last year, but revenue was up 4%.

Anglo American led the mining sector, with shares rising 2.6% and Glencore also saw a lift following its decision to retain its coal operations, a move expected to accelerate shareholder returns

In tech news, Raspberry Pi launched a new computer model, the Pico 2, which comes with the new RP2350 chip. Its shares rose 3.1%

Investors now turn their gaze to next week's economic releases, including the US inflation reading for July and retail sales. 

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