Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Mining and Food & Drug Retailers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Provident Financial (LON:PFG), which rose 12.13% or 71.50 points to trade at 661.00 at the close. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) added 4.54% or 54.00 points to end at 1242.00 and Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) was up 2.31% or 22.50 points to 996.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included WPP PLC (LON:WPP), which lost 10.92% or 174.00 points to trade at 1420.00 in late trade. Dixons Carphone PLC (LON:DC) declined 2.73% or 6.60 points to end at 235.30 and Paddy Power Betfair PLC (LON:PPB) shed 2.71% or 195.00 points to 7000.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1048 to 855 and 461 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.16% or 2.05 to $1293.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 1.05% or 0.50 to hit $48.33 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 1.12% or 0.58 to trade at $52.45 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.24% to 1.2792, while EUR/GBP rose 0.59% to 0.9226.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.25% at 93.19.