Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Tobacco, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Chemicals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.66%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were DCC plc (LON:DCC), which rose 2.76% or 180.0 points to trade at 6710.0 at the close. Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) added 2.48% or 61.00 points to end at 2521.00 and Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HRGV) was up 2.44% or 43.50 points to 1823.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), which lost 3.37% or 39.00 points to trade at 1118.00 in late trade. National Grid PLC (LON:NG) declined 3.29% or 29.10 points to end at 855.10 and Schroders PLC (LON:SDR) shed 2.88% or 78.00 points to 2635.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1114 to 945 and 331 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.53% or 20.15 to $1296.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.45% or 0.27 to hit $59.14 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.49% or 0.33 to trade at $66.91 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.83% to 1.3079, while EUR/GBP rose 0.80% to 0.8590.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.42% at 96.683.