Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Tobacco, Food & Drug Retailers and Beverage sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP), which rose 13.62% or 27.10 points to trade at 226.10 at the close. Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB) added 7.55% or 280.00 points to end at 3990.00 and British American Tobacco PLC (LON:BATS) was up 3.67% or 178.00 points to 5028.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Hammerson PLC (LON:HMSO), which lost 6.17% or 33.00 points to trade at 501.50 in late trade. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK) declined 2.96% or 29.00 points to end at 950.00 and Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO) shed 1.86% or 46.00 points to 2427.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1247 to 799 and 123 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.12% or 1.50 to $1266.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 2.48% or 1.43 to hit $56.19 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 2.15% or 1.35 to trade at $61.51 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.53% to 1.3372, while EUR/GBP rose 0.19% to 0.8814.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.36% at 93.61.