Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Life Insurance/Assurance, Mobile Telecommunications and Banking sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.62%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LON:RBS), which rose 2.51% or 5.700 points to trade at 233.100 at the close. Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM) added 2.48% or 20.00 points to end at 825.50 and Standard Life PLC (LON:SL) was up 2.30% or 8.200 points to 365.400 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL), which lost 2.67% or 35.50 points to trade at 1295.50 in late trade. Worldpay Group PLC (LON:WPG) declined 2.60% or 7.300 points to end at 274.000 and Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) shed 2.55% or 40.00 points to 1529.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1120 to 751 and 461 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.43% or 5.35 to $1234.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.39% or 0.73 to hit $53.07 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.94% or 0.52 to trade at $55.64 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.15% to 1.2521, while EUR/GBP fell 0.20% to 0.8515.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.44% at 100.58.