(Reuters) -Shares in AstraZeneca rose past their September 2024 peak on Tuesday, hitting a fresh record high and cementing the company’s position as the largest UK-listed stock by market value.

Tuesday’s surge added to the rally after forecast-beating quarterly earnings last week and a U.S. drug-pricing deal in October that helped remove some policy uncertainty. The United States accounts for more than 40% of AstraZeneca’s total sales.

By 0832 GMT, AstraZeneca was up 2.5% after surging to as high as 134.6 pounds, giving it a market value of close to 210 billion pounds ($282 billion). The blue-chip FTSE index, meanwhile, rose 1.1% to new record highs of its own, after UK labour market data boosted expectations for a Bank of England rate cut next month.

($1 = 0.7451 pounds)

(Reporting b

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