London's FTSE 100 closes lower in shortened Christmas Eve session

Dec 24 (Reuters) - The ⁠FTSE 100 ⁠closed ‍lower in quiet trading on Wednesday, as investors wound down some positions in ‍pharma heavyweights AstraZeneca and GSK in a truncated ​Christmas Eve session.

The UK's blue-chip FTSE 100 closed down ​0.2%, moving sideways since hitting a five-week high last week following the Bank of England’s 25-basis-point rate cut.

AstraZeneca and GSK ​dropped about 0.5% each.

The domestically focussed midcap FTSE 250 index was down 0.07%, but still ​managed to notch its second straight weekly gain.

Trading volumes remained thin heading ‌into the holidays, as many markets are either shut or operating on reduced ​hours on Christmas Eve.

London’s stock ⁠market will remain closed on Thursday and Friday for Christmas and Boxing Day ‌holidays.

Oil major BP agreed to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol lubricants business to U.S. investment ‌firm Stonepeak for about $6 billion, a significant step in the ‌oil major's $20 billion divestment plan aimed at cutting debt and boosting returns. Its shares were down 0.4%.

The FTSE 100 ‍index is set to close out a fifth straight year of gains, with ⁠a 20.7% advance that has outperformed European and U.S. benchmarks, fuelled by miners, financials and defence shares.

(Reporting by Tharuniyaa Lakshmi in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Sahal Muhammed)

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