Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Chemicals and Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.66%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV), which rose 3.18% or 65.00 points to trade at 2110.00 at the close. BHP Billiton PLC (LON:BLT) added 2.75% or 44.60 points to end at 1668.60 and Johnson Matthey PLC (LON:JMAT) was up 2.43% or 89.00 points to 3756.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN), which lost 7.00% or 122.50 points to trade at 1627.00 in late trade. Royal Mail PLC (LON:RMG) declined 4.49% or 22.00 points to end at 467.50 and Capita PLC (LON:CPI) shed 2.47% or 4.15 points to 163.95.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1118 to 846 and 302 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.07% or 0.80 to $1226.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.48% or 0.32 to hit $67.48 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.75% or 0.54 to trade at $72.70 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.39% to 1.3059, while EUR/GBP rose 0.35% to 0.8923.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 94.79.