Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Fixed Line Telecommunications, Tobacco and Forestry & Paper sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were BT Group PLC (LON:BT), which rose 2.63% or 11.550 points to trade at 451.050 at the close. Pearson PLC (LON:PSON) added 2.61% or 20.50 points to end at 805.00 and Next PLC (LON:NXT) was up 2.52% or 130.00 points to 5280.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Centrica PLC (LON:CNA), which lost 9.78% or 22.60 points to trade at 208.50 in late trade. Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISA) declined 7.20% or 67.00 points to end at 863.00 and Sage Group PLC (LON:SGE) shed 3.64% or 22.00 points to 582.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1024 to 959 and 447 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.26% or 3.35 to $1277.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 2.67% or 1.17 to hit $44.95 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 2.11% or 0.94 to trade at $45.56 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.03% to 1.4492, while EUR/GBP fell 0.66% to 0.7872.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.48% at 93.72.