By Twesha Dikshit and Ankita Yadav
(Reuters) -The UK’s FTSE 100 closed at an all-time high on Thursday, boosted by gains in mining and healthcare stocks, as investors brushed off the latest U.S. tariff threats to focus on negotiations.,
The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 rose 1.2% to 8,975.66 points, surpassing its previous intraday peak hit in March.
“You’ve got a lot of private equity companies which have been hovering around UK assets and indicating to investors that actually UK assets are still really good value,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“The fact that the UK side was one of the first to sign a trade deal with the United States has also helped lift sentiment.”
The FTSE 100 is up 9.8% so far this year, outperforming the pan-European STOXX 600’s 8.9% gain and U.S. benchmark S&P 500’s 6.7% climb.
Iron ore prices hit multi-month highs, and commercial metals including aluminium and nickel rose, pushing the UK industrial metal mining stocks index up by 3.7%. Precious metal miners also benefitted after gold prices edged higher on a softer dollar.
Healthcare stocks gained as investors looked past U.S. threats of 200% tariffs on pharmaceuticals. AstraZeneca rose 2.6%, while GSK added 2.1%.
Meanwhile, signs of easing U.S.-European Union tensions also supported sentiment after both sides said good progress had been made on the framework and a deal may even be possible within days.
The domestically oriented FTSE 250 index, which has been relatively sheltered from tariff disputes due to low international exposure, rose 0.6%.
Among single stocks, WPP inched up 1.1% following a nearly 19% slump on Wednesday. The company named board member Cindy Rose as CEO on Thursday.
Jupiter jumped 10.7% after the money manager said it would buy smaller rival CCLA Investment Manager, part of a wider wave of consolidation in the fund industry.
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Twesha Dikshit and Ankita Yadav; Editing by Amanda Cooper, Tasim Zahid and Richard Chang)
