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Updated at 1606 GMT

By Purvi Agarwal and Roshan Abraham

Aug 13 (Reuters) -UK stocks ended higher on Tuesday, helped by insurers' shares as investors looked to crucial inflation numbers at home and in the United States for direction on global interest rates, while Crest Nicholson lagged the mid-caps.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index .FTSE and the mid-cap FTSE 250 index .FTMC added about 0.3% each and extended gains to a third consecutive session.

Most sub-sectors rallied on the day, with both life .FTNMX303010 and non-life .FTNMX303020 insurers leading gains after Just Group JUSTJ.L beat its previous 2024 profit forecast, sending its shares 14.5% higher.

Pharma and biotech .FTNMX201030 boosted the benchmark index the most with a 1.1% rise.

On the flip side, automobile and parts .FTNMX401010 led declines, pulled down by a 4.4% fall in Dowlais Group DWL.L, as itsaid it was exploring a potential sale of its GKN Powder Metallurgy unit, among other options, and cut its annual revenue forecast.

Industrial metal miners .FTNMX551020 dipped 0.6% on easing copper prices as investors turned to profit-taking. MET/L

In stocks, British homebuilder Crest Nicholson CRST.L fell 20.7% to the bottom of the FTSE 250 after Bellway BWY.L scrapped its 720 million pound ($923.33 million) takeover proposal for its midcap peer.

Data out of the UK showed a slowdown in average earnings growth and an unexpected fall in the unemployment rate, pushing the pound up against the dollar.

But worries of stickier wage growth will hold back the Bank of England "on cutting rates at its next meeting, focusing on November as the likely candidate for another round of easing," said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.

Investors are now looking ahead to the crucial consumer prices index (CPI) reading from the UK and the U.S. on Wednesday to strengthen bets on monetary policy easing by the BoE and the Federal Reserve.

($1 = 0.7798 pounds)

Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Roshan Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Susan Fenton

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