FTSE 100 hits record high on big mining M&A, earnings push

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FTSE 100 up 0.7%, FTSE 250 off 0.5%

April 25 (Reuters) – Britain’s FTSE 100 hit a record high on Thursday as miner Anglo American surged on a buyout offer from BHP Group, while investors cheered earnings from several blue-chip firms including Unilever, AstraZeneca and Barclays.

Shares of Anglo American surged 12.7% to a nine-month high after BHP said it made an offer to buy the London-listed miner, valuing its share capital at 31.1 billion pounds ($38.84 billion).

The deal would create the world’s biggest copper miner with around 10% of global output. BHP’s UK-listed stock fell 3.7%.

The FTSE 350 industrial metal miners index rose 2.6%, while the blue-chip FTSE 100 ticked up 0.7% to a record high of 8,098.14. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 0.5%.

AstraZeneca gained 5.3% after the drugmaker reported quarterly revenue and profit above market estimates buoyed by resilient demand for its oncology and rare blood disorder drugs.

Unilever rose 4.1% after the consumer goods company reported first-quarter sales that grew by a better than expected 4.4%, as it won back shoppers who had traded down to cheaper products.

Barclays climbed 3.1% despite reporting a 12% fall in first-quarter profit. (Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)

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