Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech, Chemicals and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 0.72%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were St. James’s Place PLC (LON:SJP), which rose 3.69% or 43.50 points to trade at 1222.50 at the close. DCC plc (LON:DCC) added 2.98% or 170.0 points to end at 5878.0 and Prudential PLC (LON:PRU) was up 2.91% or 37.50 points to 1327.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ITV PLC (LON:ITV), which lost 3.11% or 3.50 points to trade at 109.00 in late trade. SSE PLC (LON:SSE) declined 2.36% or 34.25 points to end at 1414.75 and Carnival PLC (LON:CCL) shed 2.45% or 31.8 points to 1268.7.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1185 to 1095 and 97 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.02% or 0.45 to $1827.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.79% or 0.46 to hit $58.70 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.00% or 0.61 to trade at $61.75 a barrel.
GBP/USD was up 0.24% to 1.3847, while EUR/GBP fell 0.25% to 0.8755.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 90.427.