(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock

markets, click or type LIVE/ in a news window)

*

FTSE 100 up 0.1%, FTSE 250 up 0.3%

*

Ocean Wilson down after agreeing to merge with Hansa

Investment

*

GSK, China's Jiangsu Hengrui strike $500 mln

drug-development

deal

July 28 (Reuters) - London's main stock indexes inched

higher on Monday as investors assessed a trade deal between the

United States and the European Union.

The internationally oriented FTSE 100 rose 0.1% as

of 0926 GMT, while the midcap FTSE 250 index was up

0.3%.

The U.S. struck a framework trade agreement with the EU on

Sunday, which imposes a 15% tariff on most EU goods and requires

the bloc to invest around $600 billion in the U.S.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet U.S. President

Donald Trump in Scotland on Monday for talks ranging from their

recent bilateral trade deal to the worsening hunger crisis in

Gaza.

Automobiles and parts stocks led the sectoral

gains, up 1.1%. The real estate sector advanced

0.8%, with Rightmove ( RTMVF ) up 2.3% and Segro ( SEGXF ) rising

1.1%.

On the flip side, industrial miners led the

sectoral declines, down 0.9%, tracking lower metal prices.

Miners Glencore ( GLCNF ) lost 1.4% and Rio Tinto

fell 1%.

In company news, GSK rose 1.3% after the drugmaker

and China's Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals agreed

on a $500 million deal to develop up to a dozen new medicines,

including a promising candidate for a chronic lung condition.

Ocean Wilsons Holdings lost 10.6%, top loser on the

mid-cap FTSE 250 index, after the investment holding company and

Hansa Investment agreed to an all-share merger to create

a diversified investment firm with more than 900 million pounds

($1.21 billion) in net assets.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England is expected to slow the pace

soon at which it shrinks its 558 billion-pound ($754 billion)

holdings of government bonds, with economists hoping for some

clarity next week on the central bank's longer-term goals for

the stockpile.

Traders are currently pricing in an 86.5% chance of a 25

basis point BoE cut on August 7, according to data compiled by

LSEG.

(Reporting by Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini

Ganguli)