UK's FTSE 100 ends lower as financials stocks drag

Dec 3 (Reuters) - The UK's FTSE 100 ended slightly lower on Wednesday, weighed down by losses in financials stocks, while mining and energy shares advanced ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates next week.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed down 0.1%, while the midcap FTSE 250 edged up 0.1%.

Industrial metal miners rose 3.3% as copper prices hit a record high. Glencore rose 6.3%, hitting an over 10-month high after the miner said it aims to reach 1.6 million metric tons of copper production by 2035.

Antofagasta rose 4.9% and Anglo American added 2.5%.

Aerospace and defence gained 1.4% after Russia said talks with U.S. officials in Moscow failed to reach a compromise on a potential Ukraine peace deal. Rolls-Royce added 1.6% while Babcock International rose 1.5%.  

Energy stocks advanced 0.7%, tracking a rise in oil prices. BP gained 1.3%.

On the flip side, heavyweight bank shares dropped 1.7%.

Britain's financial regulator said it will lift the pause on handling motor finance complaints on May 31, 2026, two months earlier than initially proposed, as it finalises a compensation scheme for those hit by a mis-selling scandal.

The scandal, which dates back to 2007, involves lenders such as Lloyds, Close Brothers and Barclays, which are accused of using excessively high interest rates in car-finance arrangements and including extra bonus payments.

Lloyd's Banking lost 1.4% while Close Brothers and Barclays declined about 0.7% each.

HSBC Holdings, which named interim chair Brendan Nelson as permanent CEO in a surprise move, fell 1.6%.

A survey showed growth among Britain's services firms declined last month and employment contracted the most since February in the run-up to the government's budget.

The broader pharma sector lost 0.5%. Consumer staples stocks such as Marks & Spencer and British American Tobacco also declined.

Among individual stocks, Sainsbury fell 4.2% after a term sheet showed that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund plans to reduce its stake in the supermarket chain.

London Stock Exchange group gained 1.4% after a deal with OpenAI to integrate its financial data and analytics into ChatGPT. 

(Reporting by Utkarsh Tushar Hathi in Bengaluru; editing by Sahal Muhammed and Mark Heinrich)