Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Engineering, Oil & Gas Producers and Industrial Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.27% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Shire PLC (LON:SHP), which rose 5.89% or 221.00 points to trade at 3975.00 at the close. WPP PLC (LON:WPP) added 3.58% or 40.00 points to end at 1156.00 and Ferguson PLC (LON:FERG) was up 2.62% or 142.00 points to 5558.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS), which lost 5.43% or 209.50 points to trade at 3650.00 in late trade. Standard Life Aberdeen PLC (LON:SLA) declined 3.62% or 13.80 points to end at 367.00 and Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB) shed 2.89% or 70.00 points to 2355.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1129 to 771 and 169 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.45% or 6.10 to $1347.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.64% or 0.44 to hit $68.91 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.13% or 0.83 to trade at $74.31 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.01% to 1.4200, while EUR/GBP fell 0.25% to 0.8691.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.22% at 89.55.