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Updated at 1550 GMT
By Purvi Agarwal and Shubham Batra
July 29 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 closed slightly higher on Monday, boosted by real estate shares on optimism around interest rate cuts in the U.S. and the UK, while Reckitt Benckiser shares hit their lowest in over a decade following a ruling against competitor Abbott.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index .FTSE was up 0.1%, hitting its highest since early June. The mid-cap FTSE 250 .FTMC was down 0.5% after closing at its highest level in more than two years on Friday.
All eyes will on the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and Bank of England on Thursday for their interest rate decisions. Money markets see a 59% chance that the BoE will cut rates by 25 basis points week. 0#BOEWATCH
The Fed, on the other hand, is expected to keep rates unchanged on July 31 and begin easing monetary policy from September.
Shares of British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser RKT.L hit their lowest in over 11 years, down 8.8%, after a U.S. jury found Abbott Laboratories' premature infant formula caused a baby to develop a dangerous bowel disease.
Close to 1,000 lawsuits have been filed against Enfamil formula maker Reckitt Benckiser, Abbott ABT.N or both in federal or state courts.
Rate-sensitive real estate shares .FTNMX351020 boosted the benchmark index with a 0.9% gain, while pharma and biotech shares also rose 1%.
Precious metal miners .FTNMX551030 and industrial metal miners .FTNMX551020 fell 0.8% and 1.3%, respectively, tracking losses in prices of gold and copper. GOL/ MET/L
A crucial jobs report from the U.S. is due on Friday, which could further influence the Fed's stance while Big Tech companies Microsoft MSFT.O, Apple AAPL.O, Amazon.com AMZN.O and Meta META.O are also set to report their quarterly earnings this week.
Education company Pearson PSON.L fell 0.6% despite reporting a 4% rise in first-half adjusted operating profit.
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Christina Fincher)
((Purvi.Agarwal@thomsonreuters.com;))
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