British stocks up 0.54 pct Friday

LONDON, April 20 (Xinhua) -- British stocks rose on Friday, with the benchmark FTSE 100 Index up 39.25 points or 0.54 percent at 7,368.17 points.

CRH, an Irish building materials business, soared 4.08 percent, the top gainer of the blue chips. Smiths Group and Standard Chartered rose by 2.96 percent and 2.56 percent, respectively.

Shire, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, was the worst performer in the blue chips, with its shares losing 3.86 percent. Reckitt Benckiser Group, a British health, hygiene and home products producer, dropped 2.78 percent. GKN, an automotive and aerospace components company, dropped 2.03 percent. Enditem