FTSE 100 rises on Next boost; focus on business activity data

(Reuters) - The exporter-heavy FTSE 100 rose on Thursday as a rally in retailer Next, following its profit forecast, outweighed a decline in healthcare stocks, with investors looking to the UK's business activity data to gauge the country's economic health.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 climbed 0.2%, outperforming regional peers in early trading. The domestically-focused FTSE 250 midcap index was muted.

British clothing retailer Next surged 7.6% after raising its pretax profit forecast for the current year, pushing the broader retailers index to a more than four-month high.

Losses in drugmakers GSK and AstraZeneca weighed on the FTSE 100, losing 1.6% and 0.6%, respectively.

Market participants would be looking out for December services sector business activity data, along with a composite reading due at 0930 GMT.

Overnight, minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting showed that all officials agreed the central bank should slow the pace of its aggressive rate hikes though warned it would not be appropriate to begin reducing rates target in 2023.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)