Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, General Retailers and Fixed Line Telecommunications sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which rose 5.61% or 107.50 points to trade at 2025.00 at the close. Coca Cola HBC AG (LON:CCH) added 5.13% or 116.0 points to end at 2376.0 and AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) was up 4.03% or 236.00 points to 6093.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included BP PLC (LON:BP), which lost 2.81% or 15.30 points to trade at 529.00 in late trade. Paddy Power Betfair PLC (LON:PPB) declined 2.27% or 155.00 points to end at 6675.00 and Mediclinic International PLC (LON:MDCM) shed 2.24% or 8.50 points to 371.60.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1143 to 919 and 311 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.17% or 2.10 to $1224.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.83% or 0.51 to hit $61.16 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 1.18% or 0.85 to trade at $71.22 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.15% to 1.3107, while EUR/GBP rose 0.01% to 0.8705.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.37% at 96.16.