Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Household Goods & Home Construction, Life Insurance/Assurance and Aerospace & Defense sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.52% to hit a new all time high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Phoenix Group Holdings PLC (LON:PHNX), which rose 6.46% or 31.50 points to trade at 519.50 at the close. Berkeley Group Holdings PLC (LON:BKGH) added 4.96% or 238.00 points to end at 5,040.00 and Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN) was up 4.67% or 61.00 points to 1,366.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (LON:IHG), which lost 2.05% or 162.00 points to trade at 7,726.00 in late trade. Beazley PLC (LON:BEZG) declined 1.56% or 10.00 points to end at 629.50 and Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) shed 1.52% or 8.50 points to 549.50.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1086 to 641 and 697 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.24% or 5.65 to $2,303.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.66% or 0.52 to hit $78.43 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.48% or 0.40 to trade at $83.27 a barrel.
GBP/USD was unchanged 0.13% to 1.25, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.35% to 0.86.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.31% at 104.86.