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London - Britain's FTSE 100 finished lower on Friday, with investors taking profits at the end of a fourth week of gains, and with disappointing earnings from U.S. peers hitting tech stocks.
The technology sector was the clear laggard, down 2% as sentiment soured after Microsoft profits missed estimates and Google reported a drop in advertising prices.
That followed soft numbers from European peers Nokia and Ericsson earlier this week, denting expectations for tech firms that are yet to report. Chipmaker ARM, which reports second quarter results next week, was the top faller, off 2.6%.
"The tech sector has managed to pull things back ... Expectations have been lowered as a result of some of the top line being missed by both European and U.S. tech companies," said Brenda Kelly, analyst at IG.
The FTSE 100 closed down 3.69 points, or 0.1% at 6 630.67 points, after running into technical resistance around its late May highs.
Despite the modest retreat, the British blue-chip index is up 8.4% over the past four weeks - its biggest four-week gain since autumn 2011.
"I feel that today's move is profit taking as the index reaches a seven-week high, but there is a good potential over the medium term for a retest of the highs seen at the end of May," said Joe Bond, trader at Abshire Smith.
The upbeat longer-term view was backed by a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey this week, showing global fund managers at their most optimistic on British equities in over a decade.
Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight call, arguing that British stocks would benefit from an improving domestic economy, a weakening sterling and historically undemanding valuations.
