London's FTSE 100 notches new high on mining, healthcare boost

Wed, 14th Jan 2026 17:26

FTSE 100 up 0.46%, FTSE ⁠250 ‌flat

AstraZeneca to acquire Modella AI, shares up ⁠2.4%

Pearson falls after losing New Jersey contract

BoE's Taylor expects interest rates to fall as inflation cools

By Tharuniyaa .

Jan ‍14 (Reuters) -

Britain's FTSE 100 ended at a record high on Wednesday, buoyed by gains in miners and healthcare ‍names, while Pearson fell after a contract setback in New Jersey.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed ⁠up at 0.46% at 10,184.35 points, while the domestically focused mid-cap index FTSE 250 ended 0.1% higher.

A broader index for miners jumped 2.3%, with Rio Tinto up 2.3%, Atalaya Mining adding 1.8%, and Glencore up 3%, boosted by copper prices which scaled a new high. Precious metal miners were up 0.1% as gold prices extended their record-breaking rally.

"A more interventionist Donald Trump who is pressuring the Fed, demanding corporations do as he wishes, and plans to take Greenland are ‍all driving flows into the relative safety of gold," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at ‌XTB. The pharmaceutical index was also a standout, up 2%, helped by heavyweight AstraZeneca after the drugmaker agreed to buy Boston-based Modella AI, ‌as the industry increasingly uses artificial intelligence to speed up drug discovery. Separately, Bank of England policymaker Alan Taylor said UK interest rates should keep falling as inflation is on track to hit ‌the 2% target by mid-2026, earlier than previously forecast. Market participants see only about two moderate-sized rate cuts by the end of this year, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Limiting overall gains, the media index slipped 2.5%, dragged by a 9.5% drop in Pearson, the benchmark's worst performer. The British ⁠education company reported that its biggest division, Assessment & Qualifications, lost a ‍contract with New Jersey, which will be a headwind in the first half of 2026.

The FTSE 350 index of Household goods was down 3%, weighed by an 8.8% drop in Vistry after ⁠the company

flagged a dip

in forward sales position at the start of 2026, having reported fewer annual home completions.

Vistry was the worst performer on the midcap index on Wednesday. (Reporting by Tharuniyaa Lakshmi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Ed Osmond)