In the London equities markets, the FTSE 100 closed the week at 5,241.8, up 0.4 percent for the day and 0.2 percent for the week. The FTSE 250 ended the day Friday at 7,495.8, also up 0.4 percent for the day and 0.3 percent on the week.

It was a week of some confusion as Royal Dutch Shell began trading as a single entity but still has two share quotes on the London Stock Exchange. Shares from the Dutch portion of the company are now listed as “A” shares, and shares from the UK portion of the business, Shell Transport & Trading, are now known as “B” shares. The “A” shares were down 0.3 percent on Friday to close at £17.48 and “B” shares fell 0.2 percent to £17.95.0.2 per cent to £17.95.

Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping lost a huge 32.7 percent on a Patent Office ruling against it and in favor of Statoil over data collection and analysis in the detection of offshore oil and gas reserves. Shares in OHM closed at 144p.

Among a number of rumors on takeovers, plasterboard manufacturer BPB gained 6.9 percent to 693 ½p on top of a 26.5 percent gain on Thursday as French company Saint-Gobain announced that it has approached BPB with the goal of acquiring the company.

Analysts said that a number of factors will affect the outcome of the bid, including how much of a dilution in the value of shares BPB’s shareholders will accept and how attractive shareholders consider the offer to be.