Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Beverage, Tobacco and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 rose 1.16% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK), which rose 5.04% or 63.50 points to trade at 1324.50 at the close. Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) added 4.70% or 16.30 points to end at 363.00 and DCC plc (LON:DCC) was up 3.70% or 250.0 points to 7000.0 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LON:RBS), which lost 1.47% or 4.00 points to trade at 268.40 in late trade. Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK) declined 1.17% or 15.00 points to end at 1270.00 and Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTUP) shed 1.11% or 2.20 points to 196.75.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1244 to 738 and 163 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.39% or 5.10 to $1323.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.16% or 0.11 to hit $68.08 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.13 to trade at $74.61 a barrel.
GBP/USD was down 1.01% to 1.3777, while EUR/GBP rose 1.05% to 0.8787.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 91.46.