London equities tracks global markets higher, AstraZeneca falls

UK shares gained on Thursday, lifted by a flurry of positive corporate updates and the global wave triggered by AI-darling Nvidia's robust quarterly results, although AstraZeneca's slide capped gains. The blue-chip FTSE 100 was up 0.1%, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 index added 0.4% as of 0819 GMT.

UK shares gained on Thursday, lifted by a flurry of positive corporate updates and the global wave triggered by AI-darling Nvidia's robust quarterly results, although AstraZeneca's slide capped gains.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 was up 0.1%, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 index added 0.4% as of 0819 GMT. Sentiment was high across markets in Asia and Europe after chip designer Nvidia forecast a surge in quarterly revenue, with its Frankfurt-listed shares soaring more than 10%.

In the UK, Beazley climbed 8.2% to the top of the blue-chip index after the insurer earmarked around $300 million for shareholder returns. Rolls-Royce advanced 7.2% as the engineering company said its profit more than doubled last year and is expected to rise further this year.

Anglo American rose 3.9% after the miner said it would review its assets, after posting a 94% plunge in annual profit. Gains on the FTSE 100 were however limited after shares of heavyweight AstraZeneca fell 1.8%, as the drugmaker's stock traded ex-dividend.

On the radar would be the domestic preliminary S&P Global/CIPS UK Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data for February, due later in the day for cues on the health of the economy. Meanwhile, various London Stock Exchange Group news and currency trading platforms around the world suffered brief outages as European markets opened on Thursday.

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