(Reuters) -British equities closed marginally higher on Wednesday, as investors assessed a slew of corporate earnings and awaited a Bank of England rate cut on Thursday.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 was up 0.2%, rising for a third consecutive session after touching a four-month low on Friday.
The domestically focused midcap FTSE 250 rose 0.1%.
Energy stocks gained 1.8%, tracking higher oil prices after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed additional tariffs on India for buying Russian crude. [O/R]
Heavyweight Shell and BP boosted the benchmark index, up 1.3% and 3.1% respectively.
Insurance stocks rose 2.7%, after Hiscox reported a 6.2% rise in first-half group net insurance premiums. Shares of the British insurer jumped 9.4%, making it the biggest percentage gainer in the FTSE 100.
Shares of miner Fresnillo continued gains from the previous session with an 8.9% rise.
Conversely, British healthcare stocks slipped 1.4% after Trump said on Tuesday that Washington would initially place a “small tariff” on pharmaceutical imports, eventually increasing it to 250%.
AstraZeneca and GSK were down 1.5% and 1.7% respectively.
London-listed shares of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Coca-Cola HBC – bottling units of U.S. beverage giant Coca-Cola – fell 9.2% and 6.9%, respectively, after their quarterly reports, dragging on the FTSE 100.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England is widely expected to cut its key interest rate to 4% from 4.25% on Thursday and to lower it again before the year’s end, despite inflation nearing double the central bank’s 2% target in June.
“The decision to cut rates again is likely to be far from unanimous… How the Bank couches its accompanying commentary will send a strong signal regarding its perception of the trajectories for economic activity and inflation in coming months”, said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, European Strategist at Raymond James Investment Services in a note.
Among other individual stocks, Glencore fell 5.4% after the UK miner reported a drop in first-half core profit.
TP ICAP fell 8.1%, among the top loser in the FTSE 250, after the British inter-dealer broker posted weaker-than-expected half-year operating profit.
(Reporting by Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Ed Osmond)
