LONDON: The FTSE 100 ended flat on Wednesday as investors held out for more stimulus from the US Congress and the Federal Reserve, while GlaxoSmithKline, Barclays and Taylor Wimpey slid on weak quarterly earnings.

The world's largest vaccine maker, GSK, slumped 3.2% to hit a 15-week low after missing second-quarter profit estimates under the effect of coronavirus lockdowns, dragging the healthcare index down 1.8%.

Kicking off the quarterly earnings season for UK banks, Barclays set aside a higher-than-expected 1.6 billion pounds ($2.07 billion) to cover a possible rise in loan losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Its shares fell 6.1%.

But a 7.7% jump for Next Plc helped the blue-chip FTSE 100 end in positive territory as the retailer reported a smaller-than-feared slump in second-quarter sales.

The mid-cap FTSE 250 was off 0.2%, weighed by losses in consumer discretionary, financial and tech-related stocks.

Homebuilder Taylor Wimpey Plc shed 8.1% on saying it expected to complete around 40% fewer homes in 2020.