Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Media sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.69%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Barratt Developments PLC (LON:BDEV), which rose 6.35% or 27.50 points to trade at 460.80 at the close. Auto Trader Group Plc (LON:AUTOA) added 5.58% or 22.50 points to end at 425.40 and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LON:GSK) was up 5.34% or 83.80 points to 1653.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St. James’s Place PLC (LON:SJP), which lost 5.24% or 41.40 points to trade at 749.20 in late trade. Next PLC (LON:NXT) declined 4.04% or 180.0 points to end at 4277.0 and Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) shed 3.69% or 66.0 points to 1722.0.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1099 to 1041 and 140 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.29% or 5.05 to $1735.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.96% or 0.19 to hit $19.68 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 1.19% or 0.33 to trade at $27.36 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.62% to 1.2437, while EUR/GBP rose 0.07% to 0.8719.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.69% at 100.177.