London's FTSE indexes post weekly gain as financials, miners advance

July 3 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 ended higher on Friday and notched a weekly gain, supported by financials, while higher gold prices lifted precious metals miners. 

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed up 0.2% at 10,679.03 points, while the midcap FTSE 250 climbed 0.5%.

• The financials sector gained ground, led by Close Brothers Group, up 7.9%, while Lion Finance Group and Standard Chartered advanced 2.8% and 1.5% respectively.

• Precious metals miners gained 1.4%, tracking higher gold prices after weak U.S. jobs data reduced expectations of a near-term Federal Reserve rate hike. [GOL/]

• Chemicals led sectoral gains, advancing 2.5%, with Johnson Matthey up 4.9% after the firm received Chinese regulatory approval for the divestment of its Catalyst Technologies business to Honeywell. It said it expects the deal to close by the end of August.

• Meanwhile, Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann said on Thursday that a reduction in markets' expectations for BoE rate increases since June's Monetary Policy Committee meeting would be a key factor in her decision on rates at the end of this month.

• Separately, British businesses showed no signs of easing their price expectations in June despite a de-escalation of the Iran war that had sent energy costs surging, a Bank of England survey showed.

• Activity in Britain's dominant services sector contracted for a second month running in June and by the most since early 2023, a closely watched survey showed, as the fallout from the Iran war continued to weigh on companies.

(Reporting by Tharuniyaa Lakshmi in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter)