LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) ended its four-week winning streak with a loss of 26 points this week, to end Friday at 6,708. Once again, fears are being raised by the specter of economic stimulus tapering, as stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data proved to be a mixed blessing -- it's good for the economy, but it could signal a slowdown in quantitative easing.

International Consolidated Airlines (IAG -0.18%)
International Consolidated Airlines, the owner of British Airways and Spain's Iberia, provided the biggest FTSE 100 rise of the week, with a gain of 23 pence (6.5%) to finish the week at 376.9 pence on strong Q3 results, taking the price up 120% over 12 months.

Showing an operating profit of 657 million euros over nine months, the company is clearly headed back to a decent profit this year after a big loss in 2012. The group expects to see a full-year operating profit of around 740 million euros.

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR -1.74%)
Aero engineer Rolls-Royce Holdings also released Q3 figures this week, telling us it "continues to expect modest growth in underlying revenue and good growth in underlying profit, with cash flow around breakeven." The shares responded with a 67 pence (5.7%) rise to 1,210 pence.

In the quarter, the company signed defense contracts with the U.S. government worth $600 million, had Japan Airlines place orders for 31 Airbus planes powered by its Trent XWB engines, and has a new contract worth $1.5 billion with Germany's Lufthansa.

RSA Insurance (RSA)
RSA Insurance shares slipped 7.4 pence (5.8%) to 120.8 pence after warning us that 2013 losses caused by severe weather will be "materially above planning assumptions" and that this year's return on equity should be below 10%.

Apart from that, net written premiums rose 7% during the first nine months of the year, with Canada and Emerging Markets heading the list with gains of 14% and 17%, respectively.

Persimmon (PSN -0.43%)
Persimmon had seen its stock climb by more than 60% over the past 12 months, before this week's Q3 update. A disappointed market sent the price down 76 pence (6%) to 1,197 pence, after the housebuilder described the response to the second phase of the U.K. government's "Help to Buy" scheme as "muted."

But despite that, things are going as expected, with 20% more visitors to the company's sites and a 41% increase in reservations beyond 2013 to 650 million pounds.

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