July 10 (Reuters) - The UK's FTSE 100 blue-chip index rose to an all-time high on Thursday, lifted by gains in healthcare and mining stocks, as investors dismissed U.S. tariff threats as a negotiating tactic.
By 1000 GMT, the commodity-heavy index rose 1.1% at 8,968 points, surpassing its previous peak in March, outperforming the pan-European STOXX 600's 0.6% climb to a one-month high.
"You've got a lot of private equity companies which have been hovering around UK assets and indicating to investors that actually UK assets are still really good value," said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"The fact that the UK side was one of the first to sign a trade deal with the United States has also helped lift sentiment."
The FTSE is up around 8.5% so far this year, following four straight years of gains.
Iron ore hit a multi-month high boosting industrial metal mining stocks which rose 4.4%. Anglo American was the top gainer on the blue-chip gaining 5.2%. Rio Tinto and Glencore added 4.3% each.
Precious metal miners also benefited after gold prices edged higher on a softer dollar with Endeavour Mining , Fresnillo and Hochschild rising over 2% each.
Healthcare stocks gained as investors looked past U.S. threats of a 200% tariff. AstraZeneca rose 2.6% while Oxford Nano and GSK added 3% and 1.4%, respectively.
The domestically-oriented midcap index rose 0.3%, and has been relatively sheltered from tariff disputes due to low international trade exposure. It logged its largest quarterly gain in nearly five years for the June quarter.
Meanwhile, data showed that Britain's housing market slowdown following a tax hike on property transactions in April eased off in June.
UK GDP data scheduled for Friday will be closely monitored to assess activity rebound after April's contraction.
Among individual stocks, WPP gained 2.5% following a nearly 19% slump on Wednesday. The company named board member Cindy Rose as CEO on Thursday.
Reporting by Danilo Masoni and Twesha Dikshit; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Tasim Zahid
Source: Reuters