Miners, defence stocks lifts FTSE 100, investors assess Fed Chair's remarks

(Reuters) -Britain's FTSE 100 closed higher on Wednesday, led by miners and defence stocks, while investors assessed corporate updates and measured comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The benchmark FTSE 100 reversed earlier losses to gain 0.3%.

An index of industrial metal miners rose 3% after copper prices on the London Metal Exchange jumped to their highest level in over 15 months. [MET/L]

Antofagasta gained the most in the FTSE 100 with a 9.3% rise, while Glencore added nearly 3%.

Miner Anglo American rose 4.7% after Angola's state diamond firm Endiama bid for a minority stake in its diamond unit - De Beers.

The aerospace and defence sector rose 1.3%, mirroring gains in European peers after U.S. President Donald Trump, in an abrupt rhetorical shift, said he believed Ukraine could retake all of its territory now occupied by Russia.

Babcock International Group was among the top FTSE gainers, up 4.3%, while BAE Systems rose 2.2%.

Wall Street's main indexes were subdued in choppy trading on the day. [.N]

Traders were digesting comments made on Tuesday by Powell, who said the central bank needed to continue balancing the competing risks of high inflation and a weakening job market in its coming interest rate decisions — offering little clarity on the future path of rates.

Still, investors expect the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates in its remaining two meetings of the year.

Among individual stocks, Britain's JD Sports Fashion reported a 13.5% fall in first-half profit. Shares of the British sportswear retailer were down 0.8%.

The domestically focused FTSE 250 closed down 0.02%.

Pinewood Technologies slipped the most in the FTSE 250, down 14.9%, after the British auto retailer projected its 2025 EBITDA below analysts' consensus, according to Berenberg.

Baltic Classifieds Group's fell 5.1%, after the company reported results below expectations.

Conversely, Goodwin jumped 19.7% in the FTSE 250, after the mechanical engineering firm announced that its unit - Goodwin Steel Castings, had entered a strategic collaboration with Northrop Grumman International Trading.

(Reporting by Sanchayaita Roy in BengaluruEditing by Maju Samuel and Gareth Jones)