FTSE 100, FTSE 250 off 1
UK house prices fall for first time in 6 months

April 5 Reuters British equities fell on Friday amid escalating tensions in the Middle East and dampened risk appetite following hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve officials, while investors braced for the release of key U.S. and UK economic data.

By 810 GMT, both the internationally oriented FTSE 100 and the more domestically focused FTSE 250 lost 1 each and looked set to post weekly declines.

All subindexes were lower across board, with personal goods leading losses with a 2 drop.

Markets globally assessed the news that Israel braced on Thursday for the possibility of a retaliatory attack after its suspected killing of Iranian generals in Damascus this week, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would harm whoever harms us or plans to harm us.

Investors are having to seriously consider the potential that what39;s going on in the Middle East will get worse before it gets better and comments from the Israeli Prime Minister have stoked fears that there is going to be a much wider impact, Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said.

Oil prices extended gains on Friday and headed for a second weekly gain, while travel and leisure stocks fell 1.6.

There were words of caution from U.S. Fed officials on Thursday about the need to keep interestrate cuts in check until inflation clearly slows, with Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari saying that if inflation…