Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Industrial Metals & Mining, Mining and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 added 0.82% to hit a new 3-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were NMC Health PLC (LON:NMC), which rose 8.05% or 116.00 points to trade at 1557.50 at the close. Ashtead Group PLC (LON:AHT) added 5.15% or 125.00 points to end at 2554.00 and International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. (LON:ICAG) was up 5.11% or 32.60 points to 671.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB), which lost 2.31% or 106.00 points to trade at 4481.00 in late trade. Flutter Entertainment PLC (LON:FLTRF) declined 1.24% or 114.00 points to end at 9066.00 and Smurfit Kappa Group PLC (LON:SKG) shed 1.24% or 34.00 points to 2718.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1428 to 702 and 228 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.63% or 9.75 to $1560.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.27% or 0.16 to hit $58.36 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.06% or 0.04 to trade at $64.58 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 0.40% to 1.3024, while EUR/GBP rose 0.06% to 0.8518.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.31% at 97.360.