Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Household Goods & Home Construction, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Chemicals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.02% to hit a new 3-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Carnival PLC (LON:CCL), which rose 6.82% or 229.00 points to trade at 3587.00 at the close. Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB) added 3.54% or 211.00 points to end at 6180.00 and Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LON:SMT) was up 2.51% or 14.00 points to 572.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NMC Health PLC (LON:NMC), which lost 15.36% or 236.00 points to trade at 1300.50 in late trade. Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) declined 2.71% or 4.96 points to end at 178.42 and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY) shed 2.49% or 1.59 points to 62.33.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1299 to 853 and 206 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.19% or 2.85 to $1481.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 1.44% or 0.88 to hit $60.30 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.77% or 0.51 to trade at $66.03 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.13% to 1.3024, while EUR/GBP fell 0.54% to 0.8500.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.36% at 97.305.