* FTSE 100 up 0.1%, FTSE 250 down 0.1%
* Morrisons rises after half-year report
* BAT boost on the main index
* BP, Shell track losses in crude prices
(Adds news items, analysts comments, updates to closing prices)
By Yadarisa Shabong
Sept 12 (Reuters) - London's blue-chip index ended in the
black on Thursday as trade concerns were soothed by a two-week
U.S. tariff reprieve on Chinese imports and Morrisons jumped on
upbeat profit and forecast.
The FTSE 100 index was in and out of negative
territory through the session but ended 0.1% higher, boosted by
a 1% rise in tobacco giant BAT after layoff plans that
offset losses in oil majors BP and Shell.
The mid-cap index, meanwhile, dipped 0.1% after
scaling its highest level in nearly a year.
The main index earlier touched a more than one-month high,
helped by gains in global miners such as BHP and Anglo
American after U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to
delay increasing tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese
imports.
Later in the day, a Bloomberg report https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-12/trump-advisers-consider-interim-china-trade-deal-to-delay-tariffs
that advisers to Trump discussed offering a limited trade
agreement to China that would delay and even roll back some U.S.
tariffs briefly spurred buying, though CNBC later said a senior
White House official denied https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/senior-white-house-official-denies-report-us-considering-interim-china-trade-deal.html
the report.
Britain's No. 4 grocer Morrisons climbed 4.7% after
beating expectations for first half profit and forecasting
improved sales in its second half.
Heavyweight blue-chip oil stocks fell after Saudi Arabia's
new energy minister said deeper supply cuts would not be
discussed before a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries planned for early December.
Crude prices also came under further pressure after the
European Central Bank cut its deposit rate to a record low. The
ECB promised an indefinite supply of fresh asset purchases and
cut interest rates deeper into negative territory.
"This feels like more of a symbolic gesture than effective
stimulus that's highly dependent on looser fiscal policy to
succeed," Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said.
Focus now shifts to policy stimulus from the U.S. Federal
Reserve and adds more pressure on it to cut rates when it meets
next week.
Brokerage actions also drove some moves, with rating
downgrades in Premier Inn owner Whitbread,
Intercontinental Hotel and Lloyds taking their
shares between 1.3% and 2.5% lower.
Inkjet tech company XAAR jumped 21% after it agreed
to sell 20% of its holding in Xaar 3D to U.S. company Stratasys
for $10 million.
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru;
Editing by Arun Koyyur and Andrew Cawthorne)
