Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Mining, Forestry & Paper and Food & Drug Retailers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.27% to hit a new all time high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Provident Financial (LON:PFG), which rose 4.01% or 35.50 points to trade at 920.50 at the close. Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) added 3.48% or 47.00 points to end at 1397.00 and Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM) was up 2.49% or 15.50 points to 638.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ferguson PLC (LON:FERG), which lost 1.84% or 100.00 points to trade at 5325.00 in late trade. SKY PLC (LON:SKYB) declined 1.48% or 15.00 points to end at 1000.00 and Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) shed 1.16% or 10.00 points to 849.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1279 to 763 and 154 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.26% or 3.30 to $1290.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.70% or 0.42 to hit $59.55 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.83% or 0.55 to trade at $65.91 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.19% to 1.3400, while EUR/GBP rose 0.17% to 0.8881.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 92.59.