Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Forestry & Paper, Tobacco and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT), which rose 1.80% or 20.00 points to trade at 1130.00 at the close. Intertek Group PLC (LON:ITRK) added 1.64% or 58.00 points to end at 3601.00 and Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN) was up 1.42% or 22.00 points to 1571.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), which lost 2.65% or 31.000 points to trade at 1140.000 in late trade. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) declined 2.57% or 49.00 points to end at 1858.00 and Carnival PLC (LON:CCL) shed 2.28% or 81.00 points to 3473.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1205 to 869 and 453 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.19% or 2.55 to $1329.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.44% or 0.20 to hit $45.88 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.53% or 0.25 to trade at $47.62 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 1.25% to 1.3175, while EUR/GBP rose 0.91% to 0.8396.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.55% at 96.63.