(Reuters) -Britain’s benchmark FTSE 100 closed at a record high on Wednesday, buoyed by gains in heavyweight financial stocks, while gold miners rallied as bullion prices surged to historic levels.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 gained 0.7% to 9,548.87, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 closed up 0.2%.
An index of bank stocks rose 1.9%. Lloyds Banking Group gained 3.7% after London’s financial services regulator proposed a lower-than-feared redress package over motor finance mis-selling.
The sentiment propped up other lenders, with Barclays adding 1.1%. HSBC also rose 1.5% after Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the stock. Merchant bank Close Brothers surged 5.4%.
Precious metal miners outperformed peers after gold prices soared past $4,000 per ounce for the first time. [GOL/]
Endeavour Mining and Fresnillo rose 2.7% and 3%, respectively, placing the miners among the FTSE 100’s top performers.
Industrial metal miners added 1.7%, tracking gains in copper prices. [MET/L]
Real estate stocks, meanwhile, were the biggest drag among sectors falling 1.9%.
Unite Group dropped 10.8% to a more than five-year low, the biggest loser on the FTSE 250, after the student accommodation developer reported rental growth of 4% at the end of the third quarter, compared with a 8.2% growth a year ago.
Investors also watched trade developments as Prime Minister Keir Starmer began a two-day visit to India and said he wanted the trade deal with India, inked in July, implemented as soon as “humanly possible”.
The FTSE 100 rallied to record highs last week, posting new peaks in four out of five sessions, helped by resurgent healthcare stocks, which had lagged in the first half of the year.
On Wednesday, they gained 0.6%, while AstraZeneca gave up its earlier gains to end the session nearly flat.
Among other stocks, Vertu Motors fell 2% after warning of an annual profit hit from a cyberattack at Jaguar Land Rover, whose dealerships the motor retailer operates.
(Reporting by Avinash P, Purvi Agarwal and Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Alex Richardson)
