Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Mobile Telecommunications, Construction & Materials and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Vodafone Group PLC (LON:VOD), which rose 4.64% or 10.4500 points to trade at 235.5500 at the close. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) added 2.70% or 68.00 points to end at 2590.00 and CRH PLC (LON:CRH) was up 2.60% or 57.00 points to 2252.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), which lost 3.75% or 40.000 points to trade at 1027.000 in late trade. Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) declined 3.56% or 11.70 points to end at 316.80 and Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) shed 3.16% or 23.50 points to 720.50.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1088 to 926 and 471 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.65% or 8.65 to $1322.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.88% or 0.84 to hit $43.91 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.88% or 0.87 to trade at $45.33 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 1.10% to 1.3087, while EUR/GBP rose 0.54% to 0.8378.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.61% at 97.53.