AstraZeneca, commodity stocks pull FTSE 100 higher; Tesco caps gains

London's FTSE 100 edged higher on Wednesday helped by gains in heavyweight mining and oil stocks and AstraZeneca shares, while Tesco slipped to the bottom of the index after reporting a 20% drop in full-year pretax profit.

London's FTSE 100 edged higher on Wednesday helped by gains in heavyweight mining and oil stocks and AstraZeneca shares, while Tesco slipped to the bottom of the index after reporting a 20% drop in full-year pretax profit. The blue-chip index rose 0.1% with drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc adding 1.5% after China's health regulator approved Tagrisso, its lung cancer treatment, as adjuvant treatment for patients with early-stage lung cancer.

Miners rose, with Glencore Plc adding 1.7% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral". Oil and gas stocks rose 0.1% on tracking higher crude prices.

However, gains were capped by Britain's biggest retailer Tesco which tumbled 4.1% as the cost of adapting the business for a pandemic wiped out its "exceptionally strong" sales. The domestically focussed mid-cap FTSE 250 index traded 0.1%.