British stocks edged higher on Thursday supported by a rise in precious metal miners, while caution prevailed ahead of a slew of domestic and global economic data for cues on the interest rate path.
As of 7:11 GMT, both the resource-heavy FTSE 100 and the more domestically focused FTSE 250 rose 0.1%.
Precious metals miners advanced 0.7% as gold prices reached a record high.
Meanwhile, investors grew cautiously optimistic after a report showed US services industry growth slowed further in March, while Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed rate cuts are coming if data pans out as the central bank expects.
FTSE 100 hits 3-week high as cool labour data fuels rate-cut bets
The UK services PMI data for the month of March is due later on Thursday.
Among individual stocks, Cab Payments gained 11.6% after the fintech company got a payment service provider licence in the Netherlands.
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