Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Oil & Gas Producers and Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.54%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Royal Dutch Shell PLC B (LON:RDSb), which rose 9.41% or 127.2 points to trade at 1479.6 at the close. Royal Dutch Shell PLC Class A (LON:RDSa) added 8.85% or 125.85 points to end at 1547.10 and Royal Dutch Shell PLC Class A (LON:RDSa) was up 8.47% or 120.4 points to 1541.6 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Carnival PLC (LON:CCL), which lost 22.34% or 174.0 points to trade at 605.0 in late trade. Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) declined 8.75% or 26.70 points to end at 278.30 and Centrica PLC (LON:CNA) shed 8.60% or 3.19 points to 33.92.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1079 to 1061 and 143 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 2.82% or 44.90 to $1636.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 21.96% or 4.46 to hit $24.77 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 20.45% or 5.06 to trade at $29.80 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.02% to 1.2373, while EUR/GBP fell 1.00% to 0.8767.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.56% at 100.312.