Healthcare, mining shares boost UK stocks; focus on global trade deals

(Reuters) -British equities closed higher on Wednesday, with healthcare and mining shares leading gains as global investors added risk and watched global trade developments.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed 0.2% higher, while the midcap index added 0.5%.

Healthcare stocks were among the biggest boost, with index heavyweight AstraZeneca rising more than 1%.

Industrial metal miners also rose 1.4%, tracking higher base metal prices.

Topping the blue-chip index, Babcock jumped 4.3% after JP Morgan placed the British engineering group on positive catalyst watch, citing potential new medium-term financial guidance.

Among the midcaps, DiscoverIE surged 15.6% after the designer and manufacturer of customised electronics posted a 4% rise in 2025 preliminary adjusted pretax profit.

On the downside, heavyweight energy stocks shed 1.4% as crude oil prices fell after U.S. data showed larger-than-expected inventories of gasoline and diesel.

Discount retailer B&M languished at the bottom of the midcap index, down 14.7% after saying annual underlying UK sales fell short of its target and that higher costs would pressure profits in its new financial year.

Global focus was on trade discussions, with top trade negotiators from both the EU and the U.S. saying that talks are going in the right direction.

The U.S. late on Tuesday announced it would skip doubling steel and aluminium tariffs for Britain, hours after the UK government said the two countries agreed on the need to implement a tariff relief deal as soon as possible.

Focus was on the pace of trade negotiations, as Wednesday is the deadline for U.S. trading partners to submit their proposals to avoid Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs taking effect in early July.

British equities have rebounded from their April lows after the country clinched a limited trade agreement with the U.S. earlier in May. The blue-chip FTSE 100 is now sitting about 1% away from its all-time highs.

Meanwhile, the S&P Global PMI data showed that Britain's services sector returned to tepid growth in May after fears about Trump's tariffs caused it to shrink in April.

(Reporting by Ragini Mathur and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Rashika Singh; Editing by Vijay Kishore and David Gregorio)