Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Chemicals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 0.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Johnson Matthey PLC (LON:JMAT), which rose 3.01% or 102.00 points to trade at 3492.00 at the close. AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) added 3.01% or 143.50 points to end at 4912.00 and Standard Life PLC (LON:SLA) was up 2.71% or 11.30 points to 427.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN), which lost 5.95% or 96.00 points to trade at 1517.00 in late trade. Kingfisher PLC (LON:KGF) declined 1.17% or 3.50 points to end at 296.70 and Capita PLC (LON:CPI) shed 1.14% or 6.50 points to 563.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1024 to 884 and 469 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.36% or 4.63 to $1299.43 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.08% or 0.04 to hit $50.51 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.35% or 0.20 to trade at $56.63 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.43% to 1.3524, while EUR/GBP rose 0.57% to 0.8842.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 91.89.