Investing.com – U.K. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas Producers, Mining and Beverage sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in London, the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 gained 1.43%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Investing.com United Kingdom 100 were Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES), which rose 4.22% or 29.60 points to trade at 730.80 at the close. Halma PLC (LON:HLMA) added 3.43% or 83.00 points to end at 2,500.00 and Rio Tinto PLC (LON:RIO) was up 3.27% or 177.00 points to 5,595.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO), which lost 8.18% or 98.50 points to trade at 1,105.00 in late trade. NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG) declined 3.93% or 8.70 points to end at 212.70 and EasyJet PLC (LON:EZJ) shed 3.64% or 20.00 points to 530.20.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1140 to 746 and 420 ended unchanged on the London Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 1.62% or 30.95 to $1,940.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 7.92% or 7.53 to hit $102.57 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 8.62% or 8.45 to trade at $106.47 a barrel.
GBP/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 1.32, while EUR/GBP rose 0.70% to 0.84.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.79% at 97.84.